


Chop It Like It's Hot

by heyitssmiller



Category: Sweater Weather | Coast to Coast - lumosinlove
Genre: Alternate Universe, cooking au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyitssmiller/pseuds/heyitssmiller
Summary: When their teammate signs Logan and Finn up for a cooking show for terrible cooks, they really should be offended. But it's a little hard for them to focus on anything else but their new cooking instructor, chef Leo Knut.A story of horrible cooking and falling in love. What more could you need?
Relationships: Finn O'Hara/Logan Tremblay/Leo Knut
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	1. Don't Go Bacon My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> The Sweater Weather Discord group helped me come up with this idea like two months ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. All credit goes to @lumosinlove for her amazing characters!

The Day Before the Competition

Interviewer (off camera): Finn O’Hara and Logan Tremblay for their introductions.

Logan: * taps on microphone* Is this mic working?

Finn: How do you still not know how to work a mic? You deal with them all time.

Logan: I signed up to compete in a cooking show, not to deal with your chirps.

Finn: You love ‘em. *winks*

Interviewer: So basically all we want from you guys is a brief introduction for the viewers. I’ll ask some questions, but most of this should be you guys just talking. We can edit things out later, so don’t worry about anything like that. Why don’t you guys start with your names and careers and we’ll go from there.

Finn: Yo, I’m Finn O’Hara, and I’m a terrible cook. *finger guns* Although I guess that’s a given, seeing that I’m on this show.

Logan: *mumbles in French, head in hands*

Finn: This asshole – shit, no – fuck! Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be cussing. This is a family-friendly show.

Logan: Dear God, please stop talking. I’m Logan Tremblay, the unfortunate boyfriend.

*Finn pouts*

Interviewer: And you guys play hockey?

Logan: Yeah, we play in the NHL. Gryffindor Lions.

Finn: That’s how we met, actually. Through hockey. We played together at Harvard, then got drafted to the Lions about a year apart. We’ve known each other for eight years and have been together for three of them. Can’t seem to get rid of this one.

Interviewer: And you’re not worried about being rivals on this show?

Finn: Rivals is a strong word… I mean yes we’ll be competing against each other instead of being teammates, but we know going in that it’s not personal. Just a little healthy competition.

Interviewer: So what made the two of you sign up for this show?

Logan: We didn’t. Our teammate Dumo and his wife Celeste did. They thought it would be funny. *pause* They’re probably right.

Interviewer: Out of the two of you, who is the worst cook?

*Finn and Logan point to each other*

Logan: You can’t be serious.

Finn: You once cooked pasta so much that it turned into literal paste!

Logan: You tried to cook pizza rolls in a toaster.

Finn: That’s what it said in the instructions!

Logan: It said toaster oven, you - *more French*

Finn: English, Tremz. How many times do I have to tell you that? I guess we’ll find out once and for all who the better cook is by the end of the next eight weeks, right? *mouths “it’s me” to the camera*

Logan: Whatever, Fish.

Interviewer: I think we’ve got all we need guys, thanks. Start time for tomorrow is 10:00 am, but plan on being here forty-five minutes to an hour early to get ready. We’ll see you then.

Competition Day

“Are you nervous? I’m nervous.” Finn stated, running a hand through his hair and looking around at the studio they’d be in and out of for the foreseeable future. There were cooking stations everywhere and he could already see tools and machines that he had no clue how to use. There were twelve other contestants that he didn’t know and the crew scattered everywhere, running back and forth trying to get everything ready. “God, how am I sweaty already? Is this normal?”

Logan rolled his eyes but still reached over to grab Finn’s hand, squeezing it lightly. “Relax. It’s not so bad.” Finn smiled down at him, glad that they were at least here together. How in the hell did he get so lucky?

“Besides, you’ll be sent home soon enough. So don’t stress too much.”

Finn laughed. “Wow, I hate you so much right now.” He betrayed his words with a quick kiss. “You’re going down.”

Those green eyes flashed at the challenge, but right as he opened his mouth to respond-

“Good morning, recruits!”

All heads turned towards the voice. Three figures stood towards the front of the room: one they both recognized as the producer, who was flanked by who Finn assumed to be the chefs, seeing that they were wearing chef’s outfits. Chef’s uniforms? Did their uniforms have a technical name? Finn made a mental note to google that later.

Anyways, one was a short woman with dark ringlets tied back in a ponytail and an undiscernible expression on her face. The other was tall, blond, and had legs for days Jesus Christ-

“Welcome to your first day of boot camp! This is chef Dorcas Meadowes and chef Leo Knut; they’ll be your team leaders. We’re going to start with some footage of you all walking into the kitchen, so if you all would wait out there until you’re allowed to come back in. Cameras will be rolling, so be ready! After that, our chefs will explain the first challenge and then you’ll start cooking.” He clapped his hands together. “Alright, let’s get this show started!”

“Why did they make us come in here just to send us back out?” Logan grumbled, following the other shuffling contestants out into the hall.

“Probably easier to give directions to the main studio instead of saying ‘hey, just wait out in the hall.’”

Logan hummed noncommittally. “I guess.” He wasn’t overly excited to be here; most of this (besides the initial push by Dumo and Celeste) was Finn’s idea. And god knows he could never say no to Finn. One look at that pout and brown puppy-dog eyes and he was done for. Logan didn’t like cooking, but he did like Finn. And they’d probably remember this for years to come. It didn’t matter what he was doing, as long as he was with Finn and making memories with him he’d do just about anything.

“Wonder what the first challenge is.” Finn mused, his eyes locked on the doors.

Logan laughed. “Always so impatient.”

“I’m a New Yorker,” Finn grinned, leaning into his accent. “It’s in my blood.”

The doors opened and contestants began filing back into the kitchen. Finn made sure to wave enthusiastically at the chefs with a wide smile. Logan noticed the tall one (god, he’d already forgotten the guy’s name) give a little wave in return as the other chef commanded the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Good morning, recruits, and welcome to boot camp! I’m chef Dorcas Meadowes, and this is chef Leo Knut. He’s the rookie of our crew, but don’t worry – he’s still qualified to teach all of you. Even though that’s not saying much.”

There was a smattering of laughter and chef Leo smiled, revealing dimples Logan could see from where he stood. “Hey, y’all. I’m very excited to see what makes all of you qualified to be put on this show. Who knows? Maybe you’ll give me more gray hair.” Dorcas laughed and ran her fingers through the tuft of gray hair at his temple.

“When did you get this? I don’t remember seeing it when we were in culinary school. Is it from Iron Chef?”

“Nah, this is from having Gordon Ramsay come to my restaurant.”

“Truly a terrifying man.” She shuddered. “Anyways, you guys be nice to this giant ball of sunshine. Even if he’s new, he’s still able to eliminate you from this competition.”

“In order to pick our teams, we need to see what kind of skills you have.” Leo winced. “Or don’t have. So today, we want you to make your favorite dish. Easy enough, right?”

“Oh god,” Finn murmured into Logan’s ear. “What’s my favorite dish? Do I even have one?”

“Finn.”

“You all have an hour to complete this task.” Dorcas said, glancing down at her watch. “And your time starts… now!”

“Fuck.” Finn stated emphatically, dashing off to the pantry.

Fuck was right. God, what was Logan going to make? He was wracking his brain for something while he grabbed two aprons from the back. He tossed one to Finn and took the station beside him before hurrying to the pantry. Chicken was always a safe bet, right? Celeste made a barbeque chicken recipe that was to die for. That couldn’t be too hard. It was just chicken and barbeque sauce. And maybe green beans on the side? He could get those canned ones and they’d taste fine if he rinsed them. This was fine.

He guessed on the temperature for the oven. 350 seemed good. Then he dumped two chicken breasts into a pan, poured the barbeque sauce over them, and put them into the oven.

“What are you making?” Logan startled at the soft voice, turning to see chef Leo at his station.

Blue eyes.

Logan blinked, Leo’s question forgotten. “Quoi?”

“You speak French?”

Why was his brain refusing to work all of a sudden? Get it together, Tremblay. “Uh, yeah.”

“What are you making?” Leo asked for the second time, but now it was in French. Weirdly worded French.

“Barbeque chicken.” Logan responded in French, then switched back to English. “What in the world was that?”

Leo flashed him a grin. “New Orleans, born and raised. We speak French there, too. Now tell me how you’re making that chicken.”

“Uh.” He had never said the word ‘uh’ so much in one sitting. Merde. “I put it in a pan, spread barbeque sauce over it, and I’m cooking it at 350.”

“How do you know when it’s done?”

Was this a trick question? It felt like a trick question. “Uh.” Fuck. “It has to get to a specific internal temperature, right?”

The chef nodded. “And what’s that?”

“145?“

Something in Leo’s expression flickered, but Logan couldn’t figure out what it meant. “Well, good luck. Logan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“See you at the judging table.” He said with a dimpled smile before moving to Finn’s station, which was already a mess. “Oh my. How are you doing over here?”

Finn laughed a bit hysterically. “Not good. Not good at all.”

“Ok. What’s going on?”

“Well I’m trying to make carbo’hara, and –“

“Really, Fish?” Logan called from his station. “That’s what you’re making?”

“What’s carbo’hara?” Leo asked as he watched Finn put bacon in a pan.

“Oh,” Finn waved a hand carelessly. “It’s just carbonara, but a pun on my name, O’Hara. Get it?”

Leo laughed, crossing long arms over his chest. “That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, but it makes me happy. My parents used to make it every night before my brother or I had hockey games.”

“Oh, that’s right. You guys are hockey players.”

“Go Lions!” Finn cheered, taking a spoonful of butter and throwing it into the pan with the bacon.

“Are you putting butter on bacon?” Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.

Finn responded with full confidence, “I didn’t want it to stick to the pan.”

“Ok. Got it. I… I look forward to seeing what you make.” Finn watched as Leo bit his lip and tried his hardest not to laugh.

Cute.

Finn felt his cheeks flush and blamed it on the steam from the pasta.

The last thirty minutes of the task were absolute chaos, but both boys got it done. Finn’s looked messy, which accurately summed up his cooking style. Logan was pretty proud of how his looked; he just hoped it tasted good. He gave Finn a smile and a fist bump. “Ready to be judged?”

Finn laughed, looking down at his plate. He grimaced. “Not really.”

“We’re all bad cooks. Chances are someone else’s dish is worse than yours.”

“That… actually helped. Thanks.”

***

Finn was chosen to be judged before Logan. He brought up his plate with a sheepish smile and placed it on the table in front of the chefs. Dorcas raised an eyebrow while Leo prodded the pasta with his fork.

“It’s carbo’hara.” Finn stated with pride.

“Well, Finn…” Dorcas met his eyes. “This looks like a mess, but let’s see how it tastes.”

Finn cringed as they both took a bite of his food. Dorcas frowned as she chewed and Leo tilted his head, a confused expression on his face.

“I don’t know how you did it, but this solidifies in my mouth like glue.”

“Oh god, please don’t eat any more.”

“You definitely put a lot of effort in and you have a lot of potential,” Leo said with a small smile. “I think you were just a little too ambitious for this first round and it got away from you.”

“That’s fair. Thanks for the input.” Finn grabbed his plate and made his way back to his station. He wasn’t too upset by those reviews – he already knew he was a bad cook. But he had potential, so at least he had that going for him.

Logan grinned at him back at his station. “I can’t believe you served the judges glue pasta.”

“At least I’m not serving them canned green beans.”

“They taste just fine, thank you very much.”

“Lo, they’re professionals. You’re not getting away with something lazy like that.”

He definitely got in trouble for using the canned green beans. Dorcas looked down at them like they were worms. Leo gave him the ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’ look, which was even worse, please don’t look at me like that.

“Canned food is a no-go, huh?”

“Definitely.”

“And this chicken isn’t cooked all the way.” Leo said, showing him the pink meat. “You said earlier that you’d cook it until it reached 145 degrees, but chicken needs to reach 165 at a minimum.”

“I’m sure it tasted fine, though.” Dorcas added. “You can’t really go wrong with pre-made barbeque sauce and chicken.”

Ouch. Logan grabbed his plate. “Right. Thanks.”

Finn was predictably cackling at his station. “Tremz, they couldn’t even eat yours. Celeste is going to be so disappointed in you.”

“Shut up.”

***

As soon as they were back into their hotel room, Finn kicked his shoes off and faceplanted into the couch. “I can’t believe that took so long.”

“Yeah,” Logan sat down and grabbed his take-out. “Who knew cooking all day would make us so hungry?”

Finn made grabby hands at the other food container. Logan laughed and handed it to him. “I haven’t been this hungry since playoffs, fuck.”

They ate in silence and were finished in record-setting time. Finn collected their trash and stood up to throw it away. “So blue team, huh? I’m kind of surprised they put us on the same team.”

“Me too. But Leo seems like a good teacher, so I’m glad we’re on his team.”

“Yeah, he seems so young, too.” Which sounded ridiculous to say; Leo couldn’t be that much younger than them. “If he’s already winning competitions and starring in cooking shows at that age, he must be pretty good.”

“Winner of Iron Chef America, Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games…” Logan read off his phone with a low whistle. “He graduated culinary school early and opened his own restaurant a year later.”

“Damn.”

“There’s a video of one of his competitions on here.”

“Play it!” Finn said excitedly, flopping back down on the couch and peering over his boyfriend’s shoulder. Logan gave him a strange look. “What? Maybe we’ll learn something useful.”

“I think this is going to be way too complicated for us, but ok.”

So they sat on the couch watching cooking competitions for hours, learning skills and techniques that went way over their heads. Logan wordlessly switched to Leo’s cooking show Cajun Cooking, watching episode after episode of the blue-eyed chef teaching traditional New Orleans recipes.

Little did they know that halfway across the city in his own apartment, Leo Knut was watching Youtube highlights of the Gryffindor Lions, keeping a sharp eye out for number seventeen and number ten.


	2. Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooking chaos ensues.

Leo took one look one look at his co-star slumped at a table in the break room and changed his trajection to include a stop at the coffee machine. “Morning, Dorcas.”

“You’re not allowed to talk right now.”

He laughed under his breath, pressing the espresso button and opening the fridge to look for any non-expired milk products. “Talking is a big part of our job, you know.”

“Does it look like I’m on the clock right now?”

Leo hummed noncommittally, stirring some whole milk into the coffee before sliding it across the table to Dorcas. “Rough night?”

She grabbed the mug and took a tentative sip. Her shoulders relaxed fractionally and she let out a relieved sigh. “I forgot that you actually know how to make office coffee taste good.”

“I’m offended that you doubted me.” Leo took the empty seat next to her. “Now what happened?”

Dorcas looked down at her hands wrapped tightly around her mug, expression carefully neutral. “I broke up with her.” She laughed humorlessly. “I knew it wasn’t working for a while now, so I don’t understand why I’m so upset about it. Our schedules never lined up and we never really saw each other anymore. So I figured it was best to do it now instead of dragging it out.”

Leo knew she wasn’t one for physical affection, so he just sat by her side. “Still hurts, though. She was a big part of your life for a while now; it’s ok to be upset about it, no matter what the circumstances of the breakup are.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going to be ok. Might not feel like it right now, but you’re as tough as they come.”

“Relationships are shit.”

“Breakups are shit.” Leo corrected gently.

“You know, sometimes people just want to feel like shit for a while. You don’t have to try and fix everything all the time.” She said, but her voice was teasing instead of accusatory. “How are you not emotionally exhausted all the time?”

“A lifetime of practice and sheer force of will.”

Dorcas laughed and shoved him away. “You suck.”

“If you want someone to just rant to, I can definitely make room for that tonight. You can experiment with your cocktail recipes, then get unbelievably drunk off them and trash talk all night.”

“You just want free drinks.”

“Consider it payment for the coffee and pep talk.” He said, rising to his feet. “Come on, we should get to the studio.”

She smiled and followed Leo out the door. “If there’s one thing guaranteed to cheer me up, it’s watching other people fail spectacularly at cooking.”

Dorcas got the cue from the director and started their cooking segment. “Recruits, today I’ll be showing you how to make perfectly-done mashed potatoes, and chef Leo will be teaching you how to make bone-in ribeye. Make sure you’re taking notes – you can use those when you attempt to recreate this dish later today.” There was a frantic flurry of movement as everyone took their notepads out and tried to find their pens.

“All right,” Leo grabbed a large slab of ribeye from the ingredients counter with both hands and heaved it onto the front table. Several recruits flinched back while others looked sick at the sight of their meat actually resembling the animal it came from. He bit back a smile and picked up a butcher’s knife.

God, he loved this job.

“So we’re just going to cut these and then you’re going to take a towel and just basically tear this portion of the meat off in one big piece. You see that? Then we’re going to add oil to a hot pan and drop the steak in.” The sizzling sound of the Maillard reaction filled the room. “We’re going to be basting this with thyme and half a stick of butter once the meat is cooked.”

A frantic whisper of “What the hell is basting?” rose up as Dorcas took over the lead, starting by bringing water to a boil and then waiting for it to reduce to a simmer. Leo watched as several of the recruits’ eyes glazed over, completely lost as Dorcas peeled potatoes in quick, practiced movements.

Leo recognized Logan’s voice as it carried from his spot in the crowd. “Do they have a medic on this show?”

“I hope so.” Finn murmured back.

“Our steak is done now. See the color on that?” Leo grabbed the steak with a pair of tongs and held it up for the recruits to see. “Now for our sauce. Have you guys ever flambéed anything before?”

“Lo, is that French?”

Logan’s microphone just barely picked up his little chuckle. “Yes.”

“Its literal translation means ‘flamed.’” Leo supplied, watching fear develop on their faces and trying his hardest not to laugh, biting his lower lip in the process.

This was only going to end badly, in a glorious blaze of fire.

“We’ve never had a disaster happen on the show flambéing something. Let’s try to keep it that way.” He grabbed the bottle of cognac at his station. “I’m going to take all of this cognac, add it to our pan with the sauce, and light it.”

He grabbed a lighter, flicked it on, and lightly touched it to the surface of the alcohol. Pink-red flames sprung from the pan, causing several of the recruits to shout and step back in alarm. “We’re just going to let it sit and burn off that alcohol.”

Dorcas grabbed her pan and added shallots to it. “I’m going to start getting my shallots sautéed, and –“

“Shallots?” A recruit asked, confusion etched on her face.

“Yes.”

“What are those?”

Dorcas turned and grabbed a shallot from the counter behind her. “This is a shallot.”

“Oh, so an onion.”

“No.” Dorcas said plainly, grabbing a hand mixer to blend her potatoes, butter, and cream. “Once the shallots are cooked, I add them to the potatoes and mix it all together. Then all you have to do is plate all this and you’re done.”

Leo grabbed his saucepan and spooned some out. “Don’t forget to add your sauce on top of the ribeye.”

“Now it’s your job to recreate this dish on your own. You have an hour to complete this challenge. And your time starts… now!”

Chaos ensued. Knives were waved around haphazardly, chopping skills were slim to none. One recruit was still trying to turn the stove on, while another had grabbed a pan that definitely wasn’t going to be big enough for a ribeye steak.

Leo shot Dorcas a horrified look. “Did we go too fast? I thought we explained everything pretty well, but now I’m not sure.”

“That’s just the way of this show.” Dorcas said with a shrug. “We need to see what level they’re on and what their strengths and weaknesses are before we can really start teaching. It gets better when we’re allowed to get out there and help them.”

Finn and Logan had cut off their own ribeyes first and were headed back to their stations. “Oh god I don’t remember anything they showed us.” Finn stressed, putting his ribeye directly onto the pan without any oil.

Logan looked down at his thyme and butter, seemingly at a loss. “Just look at your notes.”

“I can’t read it. You know I have terrible handwriting. Look,” he flipped his notepad around to show Logan. “That’s all I wrote down.”

“Does that say goat?” Logan asked, not bothering to strip the leaves of thyme off the stems and just throwing the entire sprig of herb into his pan.

Finn turned it back around squinted. “Maybe?”

“I like your smiley faces, though.” Logan said, pressing a quick kiss to Finn’s cheek. The redhead smiled broadly.

“Thanks, baby.”

Dorcas hummed by Leo’s side. “I forgot they’re together.”

“Yeah,” Leo absentmindedly fiddled with the bracelet around his wrist. “Must be hard. Hockey’s not known for being accepting.” He tried not to think too much about his memories of locker rooms, judgmental eyes, and the slurs of his own teammates from years ago.

A shout from one of the recruits snapped him back to attention. The recruit was halfway across the room from her on-fire sauce and refusing to go back to her station. Leo sighed. “Flambéing was a horrible first lesson.”

“Maybe. But it sure is entertaining.” Dorcas raised her voice to be heard by the contestants. “Don’t leave pans on a stove unattended, please!”

“Let it rain!” Finn shouted, throwing salt into his pot of cooking potatoes. Dorcas cackled joyously as she watched.

“How much salt are you going to put in there?” Leo called, eyes wide.

Finn repeated, “Let it rain!” as if it were an actual answer.

“I think he just put a cup of salt in those potatoes.”

Dorcas was wheezing now, hunched over as she laughed.

“Laugh now, but we’re the ones who have to taste that.”

She instantly stopped laughing. “Oh shit.”

“We’re definitely going to need those drinks tonight.”

***

Logan’s dish was up first. Leo looked down at his steak and fished out a thyme stem, holding it up for him to see. “When you’re working with thyme, you really need to just use the leaves. When the stems are cooked they get really tough and can be like swallowing fish bones when they’re like this.” He cut into the ribeye and took a bite. “But your steak tastes really good. It’s perfectly cooked and not too dry.”

Logan flashed them a blinding smile (that might have left Leo a little speechless, but he wasn’t planning on admitting that anytime soon).

“The potatoes have a good consistency, too.” Dorcas added when Leo didn’t say anything else. “Good job, Logan.”

After several raw steaks, burned steaks, and soupy mashed potatoes were tasted, the dish both of the chefs were dreading the most appeared in front of them.

Finn’s potatoes.

Dorcas looked to Leo, then met Finn’s eyes. “Now, I haven’t come across many things I’m genuinely afraid to eat. But these potatoes…”

Finn laughed good-naturedly. “Yikes.”

Leo’s eyes bulged as he tried the potatoes. “I think I’m dehydrated now.”

“I think I have a water bottle somewhere, if you want it.”

“I’m tempted to take you up on that.” Dorcas said, voice strained. “In the future, go light on the salt.”

In the end, they had to eliminate the contestant who gave them burned steak and didn’t serve mashed potatoes at all. The directors called cut shortly after that and people visibly relaxed, chatting with friends while the cleaning crew came through and started dealing with the mess. Leo felt like he should probably help with that; there sure was a lot to clean. The crew would be here until midnight at this rate. So he grabbed a disinfectant spray and a rag, turning to start wiping things down and almost running right into Logan as he did so.

“Hey, chef!” Finn said from his spot next to the brunet. “Have your taste buds recovered yet?”

He laughed with a shrug. “I have a feeling they’ll be messed up from now until a month after this show ends. That might be for the best, anyways.”

“Why in the hell did you sign up for this?” Logan asked, head tilted in confusion. “You’re forced to eat awful food and watch a bunch of amateurs destroy this kitchen. Seems more stressful than anything.”

“I mean, watching you wave around that knife today just about gave me a heart attack-“ Finn interrupted him with a loud burst of laughter, causing Leo to smile as he continued, “But it’s fun teaching y’all. It’s a good change of pace. Doing just competitions gets old after a while.”

“Yeah, especially if you win all of them.”

Leo felt his cheeks heat up. “Not all of them.”

“Most of them, then.” Logan amended. “Don’t sell yourself short; you’re really good.”

“So are you guys.” Leo stammered a little, trying to think of the right words. “I – I just wanted to say it’s really cool that you’re both raising so much awareness for the need for diversity in hockey. It’s going to make a world of difference to a lot of people.”

I wish I’d had someone like the two of you to look up to when I was growing up.

He played with his bracelet again. It wasn’t a secret that he was gay – he’d talked about it a few times on various shows and competitions he’d participated in. That was one of the best things about the cooking industry. It didn’t matter who you were or what your secrets were; as long as you were a good cook, most people didn’t really care. Leo had realized at a young age that, no matter what he ended up doing with his life, he wasn’t going to hide any part of himself. He’d done that dance before, and he didn’t care to relive it any time soon.

Finn smiled, throwing an arm around Logan’s shoulders. “Well, thanks. It hasn’t always been the easiest, but we’re happy.”

Leo resolutely ignored the strange pang in his chest at those words. It wasn’t fair of him to be jealous. “I’m glad.” He glanced around and noticed the progress the crew had made. “I should probably go. We’ve still got a lot to do before we head out.”

“Do you guys need any help?”

Leo couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “Seeing that you made most of this mess, maybe we should have you clean up,” he teased Finn, who pouted. “But no, we’re fine. Thanks for the offer, though. Y’all have a good night.”

“You too!” Logan called over his shoulder. He leaned over to whisper something to Finn, who threw his head back and laughed.

Leo turned away and started wiping down the nearest counter.

***

Post-Episode Interview

Leo: *gives the camera a pained look* Is cooking really this hard for people? I want to get out there and help them so badly, but I can’t. We’re supposed to just observe for this challenge.

The video switches from Leo talking to footage from the earlier challenge: Leo grimacing and taking an aborted step towards a recruit getting his face way too close to the fire. Leo looking on in horror as another recruit wields a knife incorrectly and nearly loses a finger. Dorcas laughing as a recruit tries to grab her potatoes out of a pot of hot water with her bare hands while Leo reaches out and grabs onto the edge of the table with a white-knuckled grip. “Oh god, this isn’t safe at all.” Dorcas ruffles his hair, standing on her tiptoes to do so. “Poor rookie. You get used to it.”

*Back to Leo in the interview room, pinching the bridge of his nose*

Leo: My hair will be completely gray by the end of this show.


	3. Sun’s Out Buns Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let the pining begin.

“Oh my god, there’s ducks!” Finn said excitedly, pointing to the ducks swimming in the pond nearby. Their next challenge was taking place in a small park on the outskirts of the city, which made Logan a little nervous. He was just getting used to the setup of the kitchens, and now he had to deal with this. Finn let out an aww as a group of ducklings followed their mom. “Look at ‘em, they’re so cute.”

Logan looked warily at the setup of grills a few feet away. “I don’t think we’re here to look at ducks.”

“Good morning, recruits!” Dorcas called, waving them over. Leo stood beside her, hair turned golden in the sunlight. Logan blamed the reason he was suddenly too hot on the weather.

Ah, yes. That new development Logan refused to think about too hard.

He was happy with Finn. They’d been happy together for years now.

So why was he crushing on Leo like he did with Finn back in college?

Logan wasn’t blind – he knew the signs well enough after pining for Finn for five years. He just didn’t know what to do with these feelings. And they’d learned from all the miscommunication and wasted time in college – he and Finn told each other everything now.

He just wasn’t sure he could tell Finn this.

How would that conversation go? Hey I know we’ve been happily together for three years now but I also kind of want to kiss that tall blond guy who’s been teaching us how to cook. 

Yeah. That would go over well.

“Today we’re going to be testing your creativity by having you make your own burgers! We’ll both give you examples, but you’ll need to come up with your own original ideas for this challenge.” Leo stated, dumping ground beef into a bowl. “I’m going to make a jaeger schnitzel burger. So for the meat I’m using a mixture of different meats. Schnitzel is traditionally pork or veal, but you need the right ratio of lean meat to fatty meat to make a good burger, so I’m adding some additional fatty beef.” He formed patties out of the meat and placed them on the grill. “What really sets jaeger schnitzel from regular schnitzel is the mushroom gravy on top.”

He smiled, which Logan was quickly realizing was completely unfair. “Creating a gravy is a little hard on a grill, but I’ll do my best. Basically we’re going to melt butter in a pan and fry these onions until they begin to brown. Then add the garlic and cook it for another minute. Add the mushrooms and cook until they’re golden and some of the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated.”

Leo switched back to his burgers and flipped them before returning to his sauce. “To thicken this into a gravy. We’re going to add flour and stir. Then it’s just beef broth, vinegar, thyme, sugar, salt, and pepper. Now the burgers are done, so we’re going to take all of this off the grill and plate it, making sure there’s plenty of gravy on this burger.” 

“And I’m going to make a burrito burger.” Dorcas took over. “First we’re going to take our meat and add some seasoning to it: chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, dried oregano, paprika, ground cumin, sea salt, and black pepper. Make sure to get the seasoning mixed in there thoroughly. Then we just throw these patties on the grill and let them cook. What really sets this burger apart are the toppings.”

She reached into a bag on her table and pulled out refried beans, salsa, pepper jack cheese, and lettuce. “I made the refried beans and salsa from scratch last night since we definitely don’t have time for that today. So once these burgers are cooked, we just add the toppings and we’re done. Easy enough, right?”

“This challenge is a blind taste test so that we can’t pick favorites.” Leo added. “Which means you guys are going to be on your own for this challenge – we can’t help you in this round.”

Everyone groaned.

“Just don’t burn yourselves and you’ll be fine. You have forty-five minutes and your time starts now!”

***

Mid-Episode Interview:

*Logan takes his hat off to run a hand through his hair with a sigh*

Logan: I… I might be going home today. *laughs* You know, I hate cooking. The only reason I went on this show was because of Finn. He seemed so excited about it, you know? So for the past seven weeks, I figured if I got eliminated I’d just stay in the city and spend time with him when they weren’t shooting the show. I haven’t really cared if I got eliminated or not. Now, though?

*His gaze loses focus for a few seconds, then he looks back at the camera*

Logan: I don’t think I’m ready to leave just yet.

***

Finn quickly glanced over at Logan as he dropped lamb chops into a hot pan. The brunet had come in second to last place in the earlier competition today and clearly wasn’t happy about it. There wasn’t much he could do right now, but he’d find something to cheer him up with after they were done filming for the day. Alex was in the city visiting their family – maybe the two of them could stop by the house and say hi, if it wasn’t too late.

“Non-stick pan, Lo!” He hissed as Logan grabbed a regular pan to put his potato cake in.

“What?”

“Use a non-stick pan. That way it won’t stick when you flip the cake over.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

“How’s it going over here?”

Finn glanced up to see Leo at their shared station. “Good! I think. The lamb chops were a little hard to cut and my tapenade is kind of a mess, but I’m hoping it tastes ok.”

“And the potato cake?”

“The fact that I’m going to be flipping a potato cake is hilarious because I am not graceful at all.”

Leo laughed. “It’s not too bad, you’ll see. Logan, how about you?”

“Well, I’ve learned that I hate the taste of fennel.” Logan groused, sprinkling red pepper flakes on top of his fennel salad. “So I’m hoping to mask that flavor as much as I can.”

“It’s definitely not for everyone. Your chopping skills have really improved over the past couple of weeks, though – look at those potatoes!”

Logan looked up and smiled.

A smile Finn definitely recognized from college.

He glanced back and forth between the two, speculating. Maybe it wasn’t just Finn dealing with new feelings he wasn’t sure how to process yet.

After time ran out Finn glanced down at his two identical dishes – one for him, one for Leo – with a sigh of relief. It was still a little messy, but overall he felt pretty good about it. No matter what he was miles ahead of where he started, so he was happy with himself. He was still a little worried to be tasting his own dish, though. At the end of the day he was still a bad cook, after all.

When it was finally his turn to be judged, he grabbed both plates and placed them on the table before taking a seat opposite Leo.

“This feels like a really weird first date.” Finn teased, watching the faintest hint of a blush spread across Leo’s cheeks.

Oh my god, he’s adorable.

“I can definitely see some inconsistency in the cooking of your lamb chops.” He hurried to say, flipping one of the pieces of meat over for Finn to look at. “See, this one’s nice and brown while this one is undercooked. This boils down to variation of size in your meat. When you’ve got all kinds of different sizes, it’s hard to consistently cook them.” He cut up a piece of lamb and put it in his mouth. Finn probably stared at said mouth a bit too long before following suit.

“Well? What do you think?”

Finn shrugged, swallowing his bite. “I like it.”

Leo smiled. “You know what? Me too.”

***

Logan was up next. He sat down hesitantly across from Leo, looking down at his plate and hoping it was enough to save him from elimination.

“Your presentation is really good, Logan. The potatoes are nice and golden, the lamb looks perfect.” Leo said, and something about his words and calm demeanor soothed Logan instantly. He smiled. “Thanks, chef.”

“Ready to try this?”

“Let’s do it.” Logan stabbed his food with his fork, took a bite –

And instantly coughed.

It was so spicy. The kind of spicy that makes your throat close up and tears come to your eyes.

“Oh my god.” He gasped, making a mad dive towards his glass of water and downing it as fast as he could. “Jesus Christ, that’s so hot.”

Leo hummed, setting his fork down. He seemed completely unfazed. “Too much red pepper. You said earlier you were trying to mask fennel flavor, but I think you did too good a job at that.” He watched Logan with a small smile and pushed his own full glass of water towards him. “You ok?”

Logan gaped at him, but gladly accepted the water. “How are you not dying right now?”

“I literally have a show about cajun cooking; I’m used to spice. You should try ghost peppers sometime.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Don’t knock it until you try it.” Leo looked back down at his plate. “Overall, your dish was pretty good. Could’ve used a little less red pepper, but the rest of it was spot on.”

Logan felt his shoulders relax a little. “Thanks, chef.”

***

Logan was in the bottom two.

Fuck.

Finn’s heart had continued to drop as name after name of the safe contestants got announced, including his own, and Logan’s didn’t. He knew Logan didn’t really care if he got eliminated or not, but this had been so much fun to do with him. Finn didn’t want to see him go yet.

“And the recruit who will be leaving us today is…”

Finn honestly couldn’t name the person who got eliminated – all he knew was that Logan was staying. He let his tense shoulders relax and stepped forward to give him a hug. “That was close, Lo.”

“Yeah,” Logan’s voice was muffled in Finn’s shirt. “Guess I’ll have to try harder next week.”

Finn leaned back with a big smile on his face. “You wanna stay?”

“I mean, I’m a really bad cook,” Logan shrugged. “But I’ll stay as long as I can.”

“Logan?” Both boys turned at the voice. Leo stood off to the side, looking slightly awkward.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to talk to you about today’s challenges and ways to improve. I’ve got a few tips I can share, if you want.” He glanced at Finn. “Can I steal him for a second?”

“Go right ahead.”

Leo flashed him a smile before motioning for Logan to follow him.

Finn couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he could read Logan’s body language like a book. When he fiddled with his hat, Finn knew he was nervous. When he met Leo’s eyes and didn’t look away as he spoke, he was serious about whatever he was saying. When his gaze flicked down to Leo’s lips, he wanted to kiss him. When he subconsciously leaned forwards and tilted his head up slightly, he was going to kiss him.

The strangest thing was… Finn wasn’t jealous. He should be, shouldn’t he?

But Logan didn’t kiss Leo.

He seemed to catch himself at the last second and he drew back sharply, refusing to look at Leo again. He muttered something and turned to walk away, catching Finn’s gaze as he did so. His eyes widened guiltily, steps slowing as he crossed the room to where Finn was waiting.

Finn gave him a small smile and grabbed his hand reassuringly.

“I think we need to talk.”


	4. A Whisk We’re Willing to Take

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to The Batter Incident.

I think we need to talk.

Logan panicked the entire time he and Finn wandered the hallway trying to find someplace quiet to talk, Finn’s words echoing in his head. ‘We need to talk’ was never a good thing.

Especially when he had just almost-kissed someone who wasn’t Finn.

Fuck.

They finally found a secluded corner. Logan was already nervously talking before Finn had even turned around. “Look, Finn–” The redhead’s hand over his mouth prevented him from continuing.

“You like Leo, don’t you?”

Logan refused to look at him and took his hat off to run a hand through his hair. “I… Finn, I’m sorry. Who does this? It’s so messed up, I’m so messed up–”

“Well then I’m messed up, too!”

“What?” He finally looked up, scared of what he might see. But Finn, against all odds, didn’t look mad. Quite the opposite, really.

He looked ecstatic.

“I like him too.”

“What?”

Finn grinned, nodding enthusiastically. “I’ve been researching poly relationships for about a week now.” He suddenly grabbed Logan’s hand in a fierce grip. “And it’s not messed up. We’re allowed to love whoever we want, and screw anyone who thinks otherwise.”

“You never said anything!”

“I was scared you wouldn’t feel the same!”

Logan laughed in disbelief. “Are you kidding? It’s Leo.”

“Yeah.” Finn said with a dreamy look on his face.

“And to think we could’ve been pining together all this time.” Logan pulled Finn in for a hug, burying his face in the taller boy’s shoulder. “You know, I thought there was going to be a lot more drama involved in this.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know, I just thought there’d be a lot more miscommunication or only one of us felt this way or something. I guess I thought this was going to end badly since I started feeling like this.”

“We’ve always been on the same wavelength, Lo. I’m not surprised it’s the same with this.”

Logan’s relief dimmed just a little. “What if he doesn’t feel the same?”

Finn sighed, tightening his grip on the brunet. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. How about we test the waters first and see if he might be interested instead of just assuming the worst?”

Logan leaned back to squint at Finn. “Do you mean we should flirt with him on national television?”

“We flirt with each other on national television all the time.”

“I mean that’s true, but it’s not the same and you know it.”

“Yeah,” Finn hummed. “You got any better ideas?”

***

“Today we’ll be working on your baking skills, recruits!” Dorcas cheered, much to everyone’s dismay. “Are you ready to bake some cakes?”

“No.” Logan muttered. He’d tried to make a cake with Celeste for one of the kid’s birthdays one time, and he’d been banned from the kitchen ever since.

“We’ll also be testing your abilities to read recipes, so there will be no demonstration today.” Leo added. “You have two hours to complete this task, and your time starts now!”

“Holy shit!” Finn threw an apron over his neck and frantically began looking for cake pans at his station. “I’ve never made a cake before!”

Logan pre-heated his oven. “I have, and I almost burned the kitchen down.”

Finn cackled, thumbing through the printed recipe. “When was this?”

“Katie’s fourth birthday. We had to call the fire department and everything.”

“Oh, I bet Celeste was so mad.”

“Yeah. Kids thought it was cool, though.”

The two boys started carefully measuring ingredients out: Finn separating his wet and dry ingredients, while Logan kept them all in one bowl.

“Lo, I think you’re doing that wrong.”

Sure enough, Leo had spotted them. “Logan, have you been reading your instructions thoroughly?”

“Yeah.” Logan said absentmindedly, already lost in cornflower-blue eyes.

“So you know that you’re supposed to mix your wet and dry ingredients separately.”

“Yeah, but they’re all going in the same place anyways, so I figured I’d save myself some time.”

“Actually, one of the main points of mixing them separately is to save time.” Finn watched Leo’s eyes light up as he began explaining. “See, when you mix the dry ingredients together and then the wet ingredients, you’ll have very little mixing to do once you combine them. It also helps prevent overmixing your batter. The less you mix the flour, the less the gluten has a chance to develop, so you end up with a fluffier cake.”

Finn kept sneaking glances while he added his ingredients to the stand mixer, watching Leo gesticulate with his hands as he turned the mixer on –

And went straight past the first setting to the sixth.

He shrieked as batter flew everywhere, fumbling with the settings as he tried to turn it off dear god make it stop.

The same hands he’d been watching earlier reached over to brush against his own and switch the mixer off. The silence was startling until it was filled with a laugh.

“General word of advice: start on the lowest power and work your way up.”

Finn turned to see Leo absolutely covered in batter, but still laughing with his eyes crinkling up at the corners.

“Got it.” Finn breathed, unable to look away.

“You’ve, uh, you’ve got a little something there.” Logan interrupted, motioning to his face. Instead of waiting for Leo to take care of it he reached up and wiped off the batter himself, letting his finger drag gently across soft skin. Finn’s jaw dropped when Logan put the same finger in his mouth to lick the batter off.

“If it’s any consolation, Finn, your batter tastes good. Too bad it’s all over the kitchen now.”

Leo’s cheeks were so red. “I, uh, I’ve got to – other contestants. Um.” He gave an awkward smile and hurried off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Finn turned to gape at Logan. “Jesus Christ, Lo. Are you trying to kill me?”

Logan sent him a wink and started over on his batter, making sure to mix his wet and dry ingredients separately.

***

Dorcas delicately spit Logan’s cake out onto a napkin after tasting it. “Oh my god, how much vanilla extract did you put in this?”

“I don’t remember? The measuring spoon said Tbsp, I think.”

“Yeah, but the recipe said one teaspoon.”

“Yeah. A Tbsp.”

“No.”

“I mean I can’t taste anything other than vanilla,” Leo said, poking at the cake with his fork. “But the texture is good.”

Logan nodded excitedly. “It should be extra fluffy; I kept my ingredients separate and mixed the batter as little as possible.”

He received a warm smile for that, which was better than any compliment about his cooking.

After a few more contestants were judged, it was Finn’s turn. He watched nervously as Dorcas and Leo cut into it and tried it.

“Finn, this is perfect.”

He blinked. “What?”

“He’s right,” Dorcas said, taking another bite. “It’s light, flavored really well, and the buttercream is perfect. Well done.”

Finn smiled, still confused, but made his way back to his station where Logan gave him a congratulatory fist bump. “Nice one, Fish.”

*** 

Post-Episode Interview

*Dorcas grinning like a maniac while being shown footage from earlier*

Dorcas: The crew and I have termed it “The Batter Incident”. I can’t stop watching it. *she motions to Finn and Logan on the screen* They’re pretty obvious, aren’t they? 

Camera man: How does Leo feel about all of this?

*Dorcas sighs, looking back to the camera*

Dorcas: That’s the question, isn’t it?

*** 

Leo dropped his keys on the island in his apartment, listening to the dial tone on his phone finally stop and his mom’s voice take its place.

“Hi, sweetheart! It’s so good to hear from you! How was your day?”

He swallowed harshly, letting his head hang. “Hey, mama.”

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

I did it again. I caught feelings for someone who isn’t available. Except now it isn’t just one person, it’s two.

“Nothing,” Leo said, staring out his apartment window at the light-polluted sky. “Just a long day.”


	5. You Take a Pizza My Heart With You

About thirty minutes after he ended the call with his mom, there was a knock on Leo’s apartment door.

“So,” Dorcas greeted him as soon as the door opened. “your mom called me. Said you were upset and asked me to check up on you.”

Leo reluctantly opened the door wider. “At least come in first.”

“Thanks.” She strolled in, dropping a bag on the counter and sitting down on the couch like she owned the place. “You want to start talking, or am I going to have to pry information out of you?”

“How about neither?” He said as he sat down next to her.

“Is this about The Batter Incident?”

Leo clenched his jaw. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“You need to talk about it.”

“Do I?”

“Leo, for once in your life, let someone take care of you for a change.”

He sighed, staring down at his hands and collecting his thoughts. Finally he said, “It’s stupid, you know? I don’t know why I’m feeling like this. Don’t worry about it; I’ll get over it eventually.”

“I swear, it’s like pulling teeth with you.” Dorcas grumbled. “Start talking. Now. You like them, right?”

“They’ve been in a relationship for three years now.” Leo blurted out, more frustrated in himself and his feelings than Dorcas’s pestering. “And they’re happy that way. I’d just throw a wrench in those gears and mess everything up, so what’s the point in trying?”

“You can’t be serious.” When he didn’t respond, Dorcas groaned. “Leo.”

“It’s true! I mean, even the logistics of it are doomed from the start. I’m based in New York, they’re in Gryffindor. We all travel constantly. Our schedules would never line up and we’d never see each other.”

“So you’ve thought about this.”

Leo laughed a little at that. “Dorcas, it’s all I’ve thought about for the last week and a half.”

“But that’s so dumb! You’re giving up before you’ve even given it a chance!” She argued. “And you know they like you back - you can’t possibly be that blind.”

He thought back to The Batter Incident. His cheeks had been hot enough that the batter probably could’ve baked there. And the looks on Logan’s and Finn’s faces…

“They might. But how long will that last once they really think about it? A week after this is all over they’ll realize it was just a silly crush and move on.”

“Leo-“

“Please don’t.” He cut her off in a small voice. “Don’t give me false hope. It’ll only hurt more in the end.”

She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. Even though she wasn’t a fan of physical affection, she was still willing to try and comfort Leo, and that meant a lot. “I still think you’re being ridiculous, but I guess I can see where you’re coming from.”

“Thank you.”

After a few seconds of sitting there in silence, Dorcas moved away. “Okay, that’s enough of that. I’ve got some cocktail recipes I’ve been meaning to try out if you want one.”

Leo laughed a little. “I think I’m going to take you up on that.”

***

“Recruits, the challenge for today is tasty tailgates!” Dorcas said with a wicked grin. “Your job is to create traditional game day dishes that people will want to cheer about, not throw a penalty flag. You can use outside resources to find recipes, and you can also use us for help. You have ninety minutes for this challenge and your time starts… now!”

Leo and Dorcas made their way from station to station, giving advice where they could. There were only six contestants left, so they could afford to take more time with each of them. Leo had helped with burgers and chili cheese fries by the time he’d reached Finn.

“What are we making today?” He asked, trying his hardest to not stare at those doe eyes for too long.

“Buffalo wings!” Finn said as he tossed the chicken wings in breading. “I’ve never used a frier before, so that’s worrying me a bit.”

“Well, you really want to make sure the oil is nice and hot before putting your wings in there. After that, just keep an eye on them until they’re nice and brown. It’s chicken though, so be sure to check the internal temperature.”

Finn gave Leo a cheeky salute before going back to his wings. Leo turned to move on to the next station to find Logan already looking at him.

“I’m making a pizza. It’s already in the oven.”

“Look at you, ahead of schedule!” Leo moved around the counter to turn the oven light on. “Did you use a dough recipe without yeast?”

“Yeah, I didn’t want a dough proofing for too long.”

“Smart. Let’s take a look at it.” Leo bent down to look into the oven to see not a pizza, but a rapidly-rising loaf of bread. The toppings had all slid off and were burning at the bottom of the oven.

Leo sat down on the floor next to the oven, squeezed his eyes shut, and laughed, ignorant of the longing looks he received from the two boys.

“Okay,” he said when he finally caught his breath, “I think I know what the problem is.” Leo laughed one last time and got to his feet. “Why don’t you start over on that dough?”

Logan glanced at the clock nervously. “That’s cutting it close, I’m not sure I’ll have enough time.”

“So bump up the oven temp and get that dough mixed as fast as you can.” Leo said as he went to check on his other recruit again. By the time he was done, Logan had dough made and was working on stretching it out on the counter.

“Okay. So the problem was that you didn’t do anything to prevent the dough from rising. An easy trick to fix that is to grab a fork,” Leo fished around in a drawer until he pulled one out. “And make indents all over the surface of your dough. This gets rid of any air bubbles trapped in there and limits the rising a little.”

Logan rushed to put his sauce and toppings on the pizza before shoving it into the oven. “Hopefully it’ll be done in time.”

“I think this will be better than the loaf of bread, even if the dough isn’t cooked all the way through.”

“Yeah, but time constraints are stressful.”

“How is it any different than a hockey game?”

“I’m good at hockey.” Logan said with a grin, then motioned to his first pizza attempt. “This? Not so much.”

Leo laughed again. “It took practice to get good at hockey; the same goes for cooking. Look at how far you’ve come since the beginning of this show! You’ve–”

“Fuck!”

Leo turned around to see Finn cradling his hand to his chest and glaring at the frier. “You piece of shit.”

“Oil burn?” Leo asked. When Finn nodded, he turned on the tap and set it as cold as it would go. “Those are the worst. Come here. Run it under cold water for a few minutes.” As soon as Finn was close enough, Leo grabbed his wrist to inspect the burn. It was red and inflamed, but didn’t look too bad.

“I don’t think you need a medic.” Leo said with mock gravitas, looking up at Finn and meeting his soft gaze. He realized he was still holding Finn’s hand and let go quickly. “Don’t stay here too long – you don’t want your wings to burn.”

“Right.” Finn murmured as Leo walked away.

He made sure to give the other recruit about the same amount of assist time as the two boys and tried not to feel guilty about it.

***

Finn’s wings were a relative success. The breading was a little weird, but overall they tasted good. Logan’s pizza, though…

It was raw in the middle, just like he was worried about.

So now Leo had to pick between Logan’s raw pizza and another contestant’s just barely overcooked chicken.

It wasn’t really up for debate.

Logan was going home.

And Leo was going to have to tell him.

Fuck.

He sighed, rubbing at his temple and looking over at Dorcas. “Have you made up your mind?”

She nodded. “You?”

“Yeah.” He got up and headed for the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

***

The director called cut, and Leo’s heart ached as he watched Logan’s shoulders slump. He shouldn’t feel guilty. This was his job. But Logan and Finn both looked so sad.

“Sorry, Logan.” He said, not sure what else to say.

He shrugged. “I knew it was coming sooner rather than later. And I’m staying in the city until Finn gets done, so now I’ll have time to sightsee.”

Leo held out his hand to shake Logan’s. “I really enjoyed teaching you.”

That got a smile, much to Leo’s relief. “Thanks, chef.”

***

Post-Episode Interview

Finn: I mean, yeah, I’m bummed out. This has been so much fun to do with him and I hate to see him leave. But you know what that means? *yells* I’m the better chef! I knew it!

Interviewer: How does it feel to be in the semifinals?

Finn: *laughs* Surreal. I honestly never thought I’d make it this far. Here’s hoping I make it to the final! *knocks on the wood table*


	6. I’ve Got a Bad Queso Loving You

It was weird, walking into the studio by himself for the first time. Finn kept expecting Logan to be right by his side like always and it hurt a little every time Finn remembered. He walked into the kitchens where he was greeted by a sunny smile and kind eyes and dimples.

He still missed Logan, but it was hard to mope with Leo Knut around.

“Hey,” Leo greeted, motioning for Finn to join him at the station. “Welcome to the final four.”

“Thanks. It feels weird here.”

Leo hummed. “Quiet, right?”

“Definitely less hectic.” Finn agreed, leaning his hip against the counter. “So what are we cooking today?”

“Well, why don’t you tell me? We’re cooking for someone special to you. I’m assuming that’s Logan, right?” At Finn’s nod a strange, unreadable expression flashed across Leo’s face before he continued. “Okay, so what types of food do you think of when you think of him?”

Finn thought about it, then smiled. “Our first date – after years and years of being friends and crushing on each other but refusing to do anything about it – was at a Mexican restaurant. We were on a roadie and went to go get dinner together and I was so frustrated at this point that I kind of just blurted, ‘Is this a date?’” Finn laughed a little at the memory. “And Lo, he just stared at me with those big green eyes of his for a moment and said, ‘I sure hope so.’ And that was it. No more drama, no more fuss. Just those two sentences – that was all we needed.”

The look from earlier was back on Leo’s face. Finn still didn’t know what it meant.

“I think we can definitely work with that.” He said finally. “How about we elevate a Mexican dish? Something to be meaningful but to also showcase your cooking? I’ve got a few recipes in mind. What about grilled citrus-marinated chicken?”

Finn wrinkled his nose and shook his head.

“Alright. Pulled pork tamales with corn salsa? Polenta stacks? Chipotle Mahi Mahi burrito bowl?”

“Oh!” Finn said excitedly. “I like that one. Logan calls me Fish sometimes.”

Leo laughed. “Why?”

“Nicknames are kind of a thing in hockey. It’s considered weird if you don’t have one. I’m Harzy, Harz, Fish, and probably a few more that I’m forgetting.”

“And Logan?”

“He’s Tremz or Tremzy, usually.” He looked over at the blond, propping his chin in his hand and smiling. “You want a nickname?”

“Oh, god. With a last name like Knut, I’m sure you’ll have plenty to go off of.” He laughed, turning to head towards the pantry. Finn followed after him like the love-struck puppy he was.

“Nut. Nutty. Peanut. Peanut butter. Nutter Butter. Honey bunches of nut – “

“How have you already come up with so many?” Leo stretched to grab a bowl off the top shelf, his t-shirt shifting up to reveal pale skin Finn desperately wanted to reach out and touch.

“I’m a professional hockey player.”

“Fair enough. Can you head to the spices and grab smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and onion powder?”

Finn grabbed the ingredients and met Leo back at the station. “Ready to get started? You’ll get the printed recipe and you can take as many notes as you want now and use them tonight.”

Finn clicked his pen in response, earning another smile. “Let’s do this.”

“So we’re going to combine olive oil, chipotle chiles, garlic, smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and onion powder into a bowl and whisk it really good. Then you can add the mahi mahi and toss it in there. Next we’re going to place it in the fridge while we start the rice.” Leo covered the bowl and set it in the fridge before reaching for a pot and turning the stove on.

“Add coconut milk and some coconut water to a pot and bring it to a low boil before adding rice, salt, unsweetened coconut and coconut oil. Stir to combine, then place the lid on the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting possible. Following so far?”

Finn nodded, definitely feeling a little overwhelmed.

Leo gave him a reassuring smile. “You got this. Next, let the rice to cook for ten minutes then turn the heat off completely. Let the rice sit on the stove, covered for another 20 minutes, then remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Add the cilantro and lime juice – “

“No cilantro.”

Leo looked up from his pot. “What?”

“No cilantro.” Finn repeated. “Lo doesn’t like cilantro.”

“Got it. No cilantro. I think we’ve got enough seasoning without it.” Leo grabbed another bowl and pushed some ingredients towards him on the counter.

“Now we’re going to make the salsa. Add the diced mango, chopped strawberries, jalapeño, lime juice, pinch of cayenne and a pinch of salt to a bowl. Toss it, cover it, and keep it in the fridge until ready to serve. Now we’re going to cook that fish.” Leo grabbed the fish out of the fridge and sent him a sly look. “Hopefully this doesn’t count as cannibalism.”

Finn laughed loudly. “Oh man, wait until Logan hears that.”

Leo fiddled with the settings on the grill, which made Finn a little nervous. As seen in the build your own burger competition, he wasn’t the best with grills. He’d scared away all the ducks with how loud he screamed when he turned the grill on too high and flames erupted from it.

“You’re going to want a medium heat to cook this fish. Once the grill is nice and hot, add the mahi mahi, skin side facing up. Cook these for about 4-5 minutes and then flip them and cook until they’re crisp and mostly cooked through. This is super important: remove the skin. We’re going to be cutting this fish into chunks and having pieces of fish skin in there would be really gross.

“Last thing is to plate these. All you’re going to do is divide the rice among your tortilla bowls and add the lettuce, black beans, and corn. Divide up the fish and then top each bowl with salsa, queso, and a dollop of sour cream. And you’re done!” Leo looked over at Finn, who was still writing notes. “Not so bad, right?”

Finn gave him a blank stare, then ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Go over it again one more time?”

“Sure.” Leo pushed one of the plates over to Finn. “Want to try some first?”

“Fuck yes.”

***

Logan stood in the studio hallway yet again, waiting with the rest of the families the final four contestants were cooking for tonight. It was going to be weird, being on the opposite side of the judging table. But at least he wasn’t cooking.

They finally got the cue to enter the kitchen and his eyes immediately found Finn, who was grinning madly and running right at him – whether he was allowed to or not. Logan laughed as Finn collided with him, hugging him close. “You just saw me this morning.”

“Yeah, but I missed you.”

Logan melted a little at that and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Did you have a good day?”

Finn whined, shooting a longing look over at Leo. “Lo, you would not believe – “

“Please head back to your stations, recruits!” Dorcas called.

“Gotta go.” Finn sighed, taking a step back. Logan gave his hand a squeeze.

“You’ve got this.”

“Recruits, tonight you’ll be creating dishes for your loved ones. And your team leaders, of course. You can use any notes you’ve taken. You have an hour to complete this task and your time starts… now!”

Logan took his seat at the judges table (weird) and watched as Finn dashed off to the pantry. He made small talk with the other family members as time began to tick down much slower than he remembered from his time on the show. He turned his head when Leo sat down next to him and smiled almost nervously.

“I hope you’re not too mad at me for last week.”

“Nah,” Logan said with a shrug, doing everything he could think of to slow his heartrate down. “I deserved it. I served you guys raw pizza dough.”

“Only because I suggested you start over.”

Logan laughed incredulously. “Because my pizza wasn’t a pizza! Seriously, don’t worry about it.” He looked over at Finn, who was shying away from the grill as he threw the fish on it. “I’m glad he made it instead of me. He’s been so excited to be on this show.”

“He’s really improved a lot. You both did.”

“I’m still not sure I trust either of us in the kitchen.”

“Baby steps.” Leo said with a smile. “You’re more capable than you think.”

He glanced at the clock and let his voice carry to the contestants. “One minute left, recruits!”

Finn glanced up from his plating, cursed, and started working faster.

“Five, four, three, two, one, time’s up! Stop what you’re doing and step away from your plates!”

“I can see why you like this so much.” Logan said, eyes still on Finn as he looked down at his plates critically. “You get to sit here, no stress, and eat people’s food. This is the dream.”

“Not on this show. You should’ve tried some of the earlier dishes this season. I got food poisoning twice.”

“You did what?”

“It might’ve been three times if I’d eaten that chicken you tried to serve in the first challenge.” Leo teased.

“Why isn’t giving a chef food poisoning an immediate elimination?”

“Because then we’d have very few recruits left, and that would be a very short season.”

Finn set down his plates, smiling nervously. Logan looked down and smiled softly. “Mexican food.”

“No cilantro, just how you like it.”

God, Logan didn’t deserve him.

“Let’s see how this tastes.” Leo said, looking down at his plate. “The presentation is really nice.”

They both took bites of their food. The fish was dry, but Logan thought the rest of it was really good.

“It’s under-seasoned a little bit,” Leo commented. “And the fish is a little dry, but your salsa is perfect and the ratios of everything else in the bowl is very nice.”

Logan grinned up at Finn. “I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to you bringing this recipe home.”

“We need move on to the next contestant. Nice job, Finn.”

Finn beamed and grabbed his plates back.

***

“And the chef who will be leaving us tonight is…” Logan held Finn’s hand and waited for Leo to finish.

“Finn. I’m sorry, your time as a recruit is over. Please turn in your apron.”

Finn sighed, squeezed Logan’s hand, and stepped forward.

“It was really close, but in the end the under-seasoned and overcooked fish did you in.” Leo said, looking apologetic. “I’ve really enjoyed having you on the show. You’ve been a joy to teach.”

“Thanks for having me.” Finn said, trying to be cheerful as he handed over his apron. “I had a blast.”

After the cameras stopped rolling, Logan and Finn made sure to find Leo before they left. He was scrubbing down the grill and looked up when he noticed them. “So this is goodbye, huh?”

“Looks like it.” Logan replied, unabashedly staring and trying to memorize everything he could. Was it weird to miss someone when you hadn’t even said goodbye yet? When they were standing right in front of you? 

Finn piped up, “If you’re ever in Gryffindor, look us up. We’d love to see you.”

“Same for when you come to New York for games.” Leo smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Here,” Finn grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “What’s your number? We can send you our team schedule when we get it.”

Finn, you’re a genius.

“That would be great! I, uh, I really liked having y’all on the show. It’d be nice to see each other again.” His cheeks were red again, and Logan had to bite back a whine. He wanted to kiss those red spots so badly.

But this definitely wasn’t the time. There were people everywhere, two of them were probably leaving in the morning, and they didn’t know when they’d see him again. Or if he even liked them back.

Fuck.

Both Logan and Finn had forgotten just how awful the guessing game really was.


	7. I’m Your Biggest Flan

Gryffindor Lions retweeted Leo Knut (@OfficialChefKnut)

@GryffLions Guess I’m not a Rangers fan anymore. Good luck in your season opener tonight! [image attached]

Finn choked on his water, staring down at his phone. “Holy shit.”

“What’s up, Harz?” Logan asked from across the locker room, pulling his pads on.

“Oh my god, you’re as red as your hair.” Talker chirped, ruffling said hair with a laugh. “What are you looking at?” He peered over Finn’s shoulder to look at his phone screen and the picture on it.

The picture showed Leo with his back to the camera in a scarlet Gryffindor hockey jersey, looking over his shoulder with a small smile. It was a custom jersey, with O’Tremzy printed across the back.

It was also an incredibly confusing combination of adorable and so hot, Jesus Christ-

Talker laughed loudly. “You’ve got it bad. Tremzy, you need to take a look at this.”

Logan grumbled about breaking up his routine, but came over to join them in looking at Finn’s phone. His eyes softened when he saw the picture and he smiled.

“Am I being left out?” Pots hollered, “I feel like I’m being left out and you know I can’t handle that.”

“Nah, they’re just swooning over their cooking guy.” Talker teased as he headed back to his stall.

Their teammates groaned.

“You guys have got to do something about that-“

“It’s been over a month-“

“I can’t handle the pining for much longer-“

“Just talk to him-“

“Can we please talk about this later?” Logan grumbled, cutting them all off. “We’ve got a game to win. You guys can pester us all you want after the game.”

Finn switched from Twitter to his texts, pulling up the most recent conversation. Nice jersey <3 he wrote out, then pressed send. Not two seconds later, Logan sent a message to the same group chat – We knew we’d convince you to be a Lion’s fan eventually ;)

Finn glanced over at him and gave him a sad smile. It had been almost two months since they’d left New York and they’d kept up with Leo as best they could, but it just wasn’t the same.

People who said “absence makes the heart grow fonder” were right, but they were still missing a pretty big part of the equation.

It also made your heart ache.

Leo stared down at the flan he’d made for his latest episode and sighed. Six more flans sat on his kitchen counter – the rejects that weren’t pretty enough or the caramelized sugar top had cracked or the piece he’d cut out of it wasn’t quite perfect enough.

What am I going to do with all of these?

He had just grabbed his phone to see if Dorcas wanted some flan when a Facetime call popped up. He couldn’t contain his grin as he tapped the answer button.

“Leo!” Finn and Logan cheered, faces close to the screen. He laughed and waved back.

“Hey, guys. I caught your game the other day! Y’all played really well.”

“Yeah,” Finn smiled. “It’s nice to start the season on a high note like that.”

“How have you been?” Logan asked, resting his chin on Finn’s shoulder.

Leo shrugged. “I’m fine. Just finished recording a new episode. I made flan.” He switched the camera around and showed him the desserts on the counter.

“That looks so good.”

“I miss your cooking, Peanut.” Finn sighed, staring longingly at the flan.

Leo laughed. “So I’m Peanut now, huh?”

Finn just grinned in response.

Logan cut in, smile dimming. “So our first game in New York is in November.”

“November?” Leo repeated, dismayed. That was still a month away.

“Yeah. We were hoping it was going to be earlier in the season, but I guess not.”

“Well…” Leo trailed off, not entirely sure where he was going with this. “I’ve got a friend opening up a restaurant in Gryffindor in two weeks.”

That was true.

“I was planning on going to help them get everything ready, maybe help cook opening night-“

Not true. Leo Knut, what are you doing?

“Maybe I could see y’all then?”

They both blinked at him for a few seconds, then broke into identical grins.

“Yes!” Finn cheered. “Nut, oh my god-“

“We have a game that weekend, too!” Logan added, checking the calendar on his phone. “You should come. We can introduce you to the team after the game.”

Leo smiled while panicking internally. “I’ll book a hotel room, then.”

“Don’t be dumb. We have a guestroom you can stay in.”

Cue more panicking. “Oh, I don’t want to intrude-“

Logan rolled his eyes. “Forget the southern manners and just say yes.”

“I – okay.”

Fuck.

“Okay?”

“Okay.” Leo said, laughing at their enthusiasm. He’d figure the rest out. He’d get in contact with that friend from culinary school and see if they needed help. If not, he could just wander around the city for a few hours so that Finn and Logan wouldn’t find out that he was a liar.

Honestly, he didn’t even care. Not if he could see those two again, face to face.

He tried to ignore the ache in his chest and smiled. “Now, I want to hear about Tremzy’s fight during that third period.”

***

Two weeks later, Leo called Dorcas in a panic as he packed his bag.

“I don’t see why you’re freaking out about this.” Dorcas sighed. “You want to see them, right?”

“Of course I do! I just – I’m supposed to be trying to get over them. Now I’m going to be staying in their guestroom for three days and going to their hockey game and meeting their teammates.” He laughed a little hysterically. “That sounds like the exact opposite of getting over them.”

“I still think this whole ‘trying to get over them’ idea is dumb.”

“Dorcas-“

“I still think they like you back and you should talk to them about it like the grown-ass adult you are.”

“We’ve talked about this.”

“Yeah. And I’ve already told you you’re being stupid. But you refuse to listen to me.”

He rolled his eyes. “I just… I can’t take that risk. We’re friends, and I like being friends.” He grabbed his stack of shirts and stuffed them into his bag. “That’ll have to be enough.”

She sighed again. “I just want you to be happy, okay? If trying to be just friends is going to be miserable for you, you need to back off and give yourself some space.”

“I will.” He zipped up his bag. “And thanks for looking out for me. It really… it means a lot.”

“Well, someone’s got to.” She muttered fondly, then added, “Hey. Have fun this week, okay? Try not to overthink everything.”

“I’ll try.”

***

“There he is!”

“Yo Peanut!”

Leo turned at Finn’s shout, nose scrunching as he laughed and started walking towards them. Finn decided he couldn’t wait anymore and sprinted towards the chef, watching his eyes grow wide in alarm when Finn didn’t slow down and plowed right into him, nearly knocking him off his feet in the process.

Logan joined the hug shortly after, wedging himself in the middle with a happy sigh. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Yeah.” Leo agreed warmly, finally breaking the hug to grab his bag again. “Thanks for picking me up, by the way. You really didn’t have to.”

Finn led the way back to their car, unlocking it and opening the trunk for Leo. “Not a problem. This was way better than waiting back at the apartment.”

“When are you headed to the restaurant?” Logan asked, starting the ignition and waiting until everyone was buckled before putting the car in reverse.

“Probably in the morning. Just for a few hours. My friend said they don’t really need too much help.”

“Oh, perfect! We have plenty of time, then.” Finn said from the backseat, leaning forward to get closer to the other two. “There’s this pizza place right around the block from our apartment that you have to try for dinner. You aren’t living life to the fullest until you’ve had Sid’s.”

Forty-give minutes later they were sitting at a booth at Sid’s, watching Leo’s eyes get wide after his first bite of pizza.

“Holy shit.”

Logan and Finn grinned and high-fived each other.

The rest of dinner was spent catching up, teasing relentlessly, and secretly wishing it was a date instead of just friends grabbing dinner.

No one voiced that last sentiment, though.

***

Leo stood at the entrance to the locker room after the game nervously, unsure of whether he should just let himself in or wait for Finn and Logan. Maybe he should just meet them in the parking lot instead-

“What are you doing?”

He turned at the voice to see a woman with long blonde hair and a Gryffindor jersey giving him a weird look. She quickly seemed to recognize him, though, because she broke into a slightly-terrifying grin and shouted, “Cooking guy!”

He laughed at that, shoulders relaxing a little as he reached out to shake her hand. “That’s me, I guess.”

“I’m Marlene, nice to meet you. Although it would be nicer to meet your co-star, if you catch my drift.” She said with a salacious wink.

“I’ve known you all of two seconds and I already know that would be a terrible idea.”

“Coward.” She muttered, then perked up again. “So you’re trying to get into the locker room?”

“Uh, yeah. Logan and Finn invited me.”

“So what are you standing out here for?” She demanded, then decided to take the lead by throwing the door open and yelling, “Yo! Cooking guy’s here!”

About thirty heads immediately turned to look at him. Leo felt his stomach knot itself up and took a step backwards. He’d obviously been lying to himself when he said he’d be fine going back into a locker room with a bunch of jocks. Oh god, why did I agree to this?

“Hey, Peanut!” Logan called, throwing a shirt over his head. Leo did his best not to stare.

And then he was swarmed by hockey players, all introducing themselves loudly and only by their nicknames. The only thing for Leo to do was smile and try to keep up.

“Guys, relax.” An older player with kind eyes said, taking pity on Leo. “Look at him, you’re traumatizing the poor kid.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Dumo. Sorry about the rest of these guys; they can be a lot to handle and they have no manners.”

Several of the guys booed at that.

Leo shook Dumo’s hand. “Nice to meet y’all.”

“Oh my god, he’s southern.” Someone whisper-shouted. “How did I not know he was southern?”

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” A new voice said. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

Leo turned to see the Blizzard standing in front of him holy shit-

And then the goalie’s words finally registered.

“All good things, I hope.” He managed to say. He heard several laughs and whispers at that, but did his best to ignore them. “I, uh, I’m a big fan. I used to watch your tape a lot when I used to play.”

“You played?” Kasey raised his voice. “Why didn’t you two tell us he played hockey?”

Leo felt his cheeks heat up. He definitely hadn’t meant to say that.

Finn looked up from his stall as he put the last of his gear away. “What?”

“He never said anything about it.” Logan added from his spot next to Finn.

Leo shrugged. “Played goalie up until I started culinary school.”

Logan thought of those piercing blue eyes staring him down from behind a goalie’s mask.

Damn.

“You should skate with us sometime.” Cap said, shooting Finn and Logan a sly look to gauge their reaction. “Not during the season, of course, but maybe post-season or family skate.”

“Oh, god, I’m probably way out of practice. I definitely can’t drop into the splits anymore.”

Finn groaned at that mental image.

Pots wiggled his eyebrows at his two teammates. Logan discreetly gave him the finger before getting to his feet and dragging Finn along with him. “Alright. Nut, you ready to go?”

“You’ll come to our games in New York, right?” Smitty asked. “And maybe bring some of your cooking?”

“Smitty.” Dumo chastised, but was quickly drowned out by the rest of the team begging Leo for food. Leo just laughed, definitely surprised at the team dynamic. They all seemed so… nice. There had been no glares or harsh words. Several of them had seen his bracelet, but none of them had commented or treated him any differently because of it. He could see why Finn and Logan were so happy here.

“Sure thing. If I can get the contact info for your nutritionist I’ll make y’all dinner the night before your game, how’s that sound?”

Cheers rose up from the team and they all started talking over each other again.

“You are a god among men-“

“I’m going to cry-“

“I could kiss you, but I don’t want to get murdered by two of my teammates-“

Finn jumped in there, hoping to prevent any further embarrassment. “Okay, we’re leaving now! Say goodbye!”

Leo laughed again, flashing his dimples as Finn began nudging him towards the door. “Bye!”

A chorus of farewells followed them out the door. Logan couldn’t help but sigh in relief. They were going to have to talk to their teammates about being a little more subtle the next time they saw Leo.

His thoughts were derailed when Leo turned to smile at him. “They seem nice.”

Logan smiled in return, thinking back on the week’s events and how Leo seemed to fill every gaping hole in his life that Logan hadn’t even realized were there. The smell of coffee brewing when he woke up in the morning and being greeted with a sunny smile at the kitchen counter. The Leo-sized spot on the couch Logan had never noticed before but would always notice now. The calm he brought with him that helped balance out the more chaotic natures of both Logan and Finn. He just… fit. Like the last puzzle piece sliding into place.

God, I think I’m falling in love with you.


	8. Penne for Your Thoughts

“When you said you were cooking for an entire hockey team, I thought you’d stick to the basics. Maybe a salad appetizer and something easy to make that feeds a lot of people.” Dorcas looked around at Leo’s countertops, which were covered in flour, measuring cups, and homemade pasta. “This seems a little overboard.”

Leo rolled out more pasta dough and mentally took note of the different kinds he’d made so far. Linguine, fettuccine, penne, pappardelle, farfalle…

“Leo.”

“I just want it to be good, ok?” He finally looked up from his dough and rolling pin and stopped cooking for the first time in several hours. “Besides, this is a good outlet for me. If I focus on cooking, I don’t have to focus on-” He cut himself off, then added lamely, “Anything else.”

Dorcas sighed. “That’s not how you face your problems and you know it. Talk to me.”

Leo didn’t even fight back about talking about his problems. That was Dorcas’ first clue about how bad this was.

“I can’t do it.” He rubbed at his forehead in frustration. “I can’t be ok with being just friends. I can’t be ok with taking a step back and distancing myself. I can’t be ok with trying to get over them. And I don’t know where that leaves me.”

“I only see one other option here. Talking to them.”

“They’re already perfectly happy together-”

“And who says they won’t be with you?” Dorcas demanded. “You’re only imagining two possible outcomes – talking to them and being rejected, or not talking to them and keeping this a secret. But they could also be in the same position you’re in right now. The only way you’re going to know is if you talk to them.”

“I don’t think I can do that, either. Even if they feel the same, that doesn’t change the fact that they are in love with each other. I can’t get between that.” He laughed dully, and the sound tore at her heart. “My mama would kill me if I became a home-wrecker.”

“Who said love is only between two people? Leo, I know you know this. So why is it so hard to grasp now?”

She could see the second he began to shut down and sighed. “I’m going to hug you now, okay?”

“Okay.”

Dorcas wrapped her arms around him and glared at the wall. She was ninety percent sure Logan and Finn both felt the same way and clearly none of them were going to bring it up.

So now it was her turn. And she didn’t hold back her punches.

Those two hockey players were going to get a severe talking-to tomorrow.

“You guys have to promise to be more well-behaved tonight.” Logan told the team as they drove to dinner. Next to him, Finn was nearly bouncing out of his seat in excitement. “Please.”

He got several grumbles in response, but no teasing – which was a surprise.

“So are you two finally going to ask him out?”

And there it was.

“Are you guys finally going to mind your own business?”

“Nope!”

“It’s not like we don’t want to.” Finn sighed. “We just don’t know if he’s interested.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“He’s cooking your entire hockey team dinner. That’s dedication right there.”

“Also did you even watch the episodes of your show?”

“You just had to go and run your mouth.” Logan groaned, shooting Finn a look. He just shrugged apologetically as their charter bus pulled into the parking lot.

“Do you know what’s for dinner?” Someone asked from the back of the bus.

“He said it was a surprise.” Finn responded as they all filed out of the bus and inside the restaurant that had been kind enough to host them.

Leo and Dorcas were standing in front of several tables covered in food, which took Finn back to three months ago. He smiled broadly and waved at the two of them. Leo waved back and waited for everyone to settle down before explaining dinner.

“I figured a build your own dinner was probably the best idea for so many people. I hope pasta’s alright with you guys.” Leo said, then began pointing to each variation of noodle as he explained, “We’ve got regular noodles, gluten-free noodles, and then some cauliflower noodles for y’all to choose from. Then we’ve got sauces and proteins to choose from, including some vegetarian and vegan options. Everything is labeled, so go ahead and grab a plate and help yourselves!”

Everyone clambered to get in line and grabbed portions that were way to big for the day before a game. Their nutritionist watched on in horror.

Finn was watching Leo talk to Loops when Logan nudged him with his elbow. “Finn, look.”

“Hmm?” He asked, turning back around to look at what Logan was pointing to. There in front of them was a pot full of creamy white sauce, bacon, and sausage with a little label that read: carbo’hara.

Finn melted.

He’d told Leo that joke during their first conversation and how he and his brother would have it the night before every hockey game as kids. And he had remembered.

“Logan.” Finn said, not bothering to hide the yearning in his voice.

“I know.”

Dorcas was watching all of this with growing frustration. Were they blind or were they just stupid? All of this could be solved so easily with a single conversation, but none of them were willing to take that first step.

She really shouldn’t get involved. It wasn’t her business. But-

“It’s painful to watch, isn’t it?” A stranger’s voice asked. Dorcas turned to look at a girl with blonde hair and mischievous brown eyes. She stuck her hand out.

“I’m Marlene. And I just want to say that I am so sorry you’ve had to deal with the three of them for months now.”

Dorcas smiled and shook her hand. “So you’ve noticed, too?”

“I think everyone has.”

“True.”

“You’re thinking about interfering?”

Dorcas shrugged. “It’s either that or waiting for them to get their acts together.”

“And who knows how long that’ll take?”

Dorcas laughed, looking appraisingly at her new companion. “I like you already.”

The other girl grinned. “I told Leo when he was in Gryffindor that he should introduce us. He said it was a terrible idea.”

She smiled back. “He was right.”

“So I’ll take Leo, you take the other two? I’m assuming you’ve been trying to talk to Leo but haven’t had any luck.”

“He’s being really stubborn about the whole thing.”

“From all the complaining I’ve heard from the team, so have Logan and Finn.”

Dorcas rolled her eyes. “After dinner I’ll talk to them. Normally I wouldn’t interfere, but this is ridiculous.”

“Agreed. Good luck.”

“You too.”

“Hey,” Marlene spoke up, “Can I have your number? You know, for meddling purposes.”

Dorcas grinned. “I really hope that’s not the only reason you’re asking for my number.”

“Guess you’ll have to see.” Marlene said with a wink.

Oh, boy.

Dorcas was in so much trouble.

But she had other things to focus on right now.

She marched over to Finn and Logan and stated firmly, “You two. We need to talk.”

A dark-haired guy in glasses sent her a wide-eyed stare. “You’re terrifying.” He looked to his teammates. “What did you guys do?”

“Now.” Dorcas said, ignoring the others entirely.

“Rest in peace.” Glasses guy said solemnly as Logan and Finn got up nervously. “It was nice knowing you.”

Logan shared a worried glance with Finn, but they both followed her to a quiet hallway where she turned to glare at them.

“Are you two actually interested in Leo or are you just stringing him along? If it’s the latter I won’t hesitate to punch you.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Logan asked, then frowned. “Fuck, does he think we’re stringing him along?”

“So you are interested?”

Finn looked confused. “I thought that was obvious.”

“What’s the holdup, then?”

“We’re not sure he’s interested.” They shared a sad look. “He’s never given us any reason to think so.”

Dorcas pinched the bridge of her nose. “Oh my god, you three are so stupid. It’s not that he doesn’t like you, trust me – he’s terrified. Think about it. He likes two guys who are already in love with each other, which would be daunting for anybody. And he’s worried that if one of you didn’t feel the same he’d come between the two of you and ruin everything. Not to mention that if he got rejected he’d be rejected not once but twice.”

They stared at her, then turned to stare at each other.

“Fuck.” Finn stated simply.

“Fuck is right.” Dorcas agreed. “Now what are you going to do about it?”

***

“You were so wrong when you said introducing me to Dorcas was a bad idea.”

Leo laughed and turned to face Marlene. “Hello again.”

“Hey, cooking guy. Anyways, I’m in love.”

“Oh, really?”

“She’s awesome. And terrifying. And I really want to take her out on a date.”

“If you hurt her-”

“Oh my god, are you giving me the shovel talk?”

“No. All I’m saying is that we had entire class of knife skills in culinary school. She knows how to properly butcher things. You hurt her, you’d better prepare for the consequences.”

Marlene blinked, then broke into a dopey grin. “Fuck, that’s so hot.”

Leo laughed, shaking his head a little as he grabbed an empty pot and brought it back into the kitchen to clean. Dinner had been a huge success – almost to the point of them running out of food. Leo had noticed the nutritionist shooting him glares all night and made a resolution to send him an apology letter. He just hoped it didn’t affect their playing too much tomorrow.

He was scrubbing the pot down when another pot was set down on the counter next to him. Marlene shoved his shoulder to get him to move to the side a little. “Figured you could use some help.”

“Thanks.” He said with a smile as she grabbed a sponge.

“So,” She started, and that’s when Leo knew he was in trouble. “I know Dorcas talked to you earlier. And I’m sure you don’t want to hear any more of that, but I wanted to let you know that no matter what happens, it’s going to be okay. I mean, yeah, it might suck for a while, but at the end of the day wouldn’t you rather know than be left guessing forever?”

Leo stopped cleaning out his pot and looked at her, surprised at the turn this conversation took.

She shrugged. “Just a thought.”

He’d never really considered it that way before.

There was a knock on the doorframe, which startled them both. Leo turned around to see the head coach standing there.

“We’ve got to head out soon to get to our hotel at a decent time. Thank you so much for dinner! My guys will be talking about this for months.”

“I’d be happy to do it again sometime.” Leo said, then winced. “Maybe something with a more controlled portion size, though.”

The coach laughed. “That might be for the best.”

After all the goodbyes, Logan and Finn were the last two inside, seemingly reluctant to leave. Leo took that as a good sign.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Logan asked, green eyes hopeful. “At the game?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” The bus driver honked the horn, clearly fed-up with waiting. “You’d better go before they leave you behind.”

Logan and Finn gave one last wave before heading towards the door while Leo began making his way back to the kitchen.

“Hey!” Logan called suddenly. Leo turned back around to look at them. “Can we take you out to dinner tomorrow? After the game?”

Leo’s stomach churned at the wording. He gathered up all his courage, took a deep breath, and asked, “Is this a date?”

Finn and Logan beamed. Leo’s heart skipped a beat.

“I sure hope so.”


	9. We Brie-long Together

Leo smiled hesitantly at Finn’s words. “You’re serious?”

“Of course we’re – ” Logan was cut off by the horn of the bus again. He whipped around to shoot it a glare. “One second.”

He fished out his phone from his pocket and quickly sent a text to the team. Don’t wait for us. Harzy and I are going to take a cab back. He then proceeded to turn his phone off. “Finn, you might want to silence your phone.”

Then they both turned to look at Leo again.

His heart skipping a beat had now turned into a full-on arrythmia.

“I honestly can’t believe you didn’t pick up on this sooner.” Finn said, still smiling. “I mean, we weren’t exactly subtle.”

Leo finally closed the distance between them, hyperaware of the two pairs of eyes following his every move. “I had my suspicions. I was just…” He sighed, looking down. “Every possible outcome seemed so terrible and I was so scared that I was going to ruin all of this.”

He reached out to grab Finn’s hand, then looked up at Logan and gently cradled his neck in his hand, thumb brushing against his pulse point. “Guess that was kinda dumb, huh?”

Logan groaned and surged forward to capture Leo’s lips with his own.

Oh.

Leo exhaled in a sigh and kissed back, moving his hand slightly so that his fingers tangled in soft brown hair. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening, holy shit. He had no idea how he’d become so lucky, but he definitely wasn’t about to question it. Logan stood up on his tiptoes, grabbed Leo’s shirt for balance, and tilted his head for a better angle.

“Oh my god, I love my life.” Finn whispered as he watched the two them. Leo smiled and broke away from Logan in order to kiss Finn with equal enthusiasm. With a muddled brain, Leo tried to sort through all the emotions he couldn’t put into words before Logan moved to kiss his neck, causing the blond to gasp. All previous train of thoughts had officially left the station.

“We – we should probably talk about this.” Leo managed to say in between kisses, his grip on Finn’s hand tightening.

“Kiss now, talk later.” Finn mumbled back. Logan hummed in agreement.

Leo couldn’t really find a flaw in their argument.

That arrythmia was quickly morphing into cardiac arrest.

After an undiscernible amount of time, though, he reluctantly had to lean back in order to breathe. Both boys looked up at him, pupils blown, and Leo smiled.

What on earth had he done to deserve this?

“As much as I’d love to stay here,” He said as he pressed a kiss to Logan’s forehead. “I know y’all probably have to get back to the hotel. You’ve got morning skate, right?”

“No…” Finn whined, pressing closer to his boys.

“I already overfed your entire team the night before a game. I’m not going to be responsible for two of their wingers being tired all day tomorrow.”

“But it’s still early. Maybe we could just walk back to the hotel?” Logan suggested. “I’m not ready to say goodnight yet.”

“It’s November.” Leo countered, then sighed when Finn and Logan just sent him blank looks. He sighed. “Northerners. I will be a freezing, miserable mess if we walk around New York City all night in weather like this.”

Logan pouted, which proved to be very distracting because Leo couldn’t stop staring at those full lips.

“We could always go back to my place for a little while.” He finally conceded, watching the other two perk up. “It’s not too far of a walk. You guys can call a cab whenever you need to leave.”

“Yes.” Finn blurted, leading the way towards the door and dragging Leo and Logan along with him. “Let’s do that.”

“Hold on – Finn,” Leo laughed, trying to pull his hand free with little success. “I need my keys.”

Finn reluctantly let go of his hand, only to immediately grab it again when Leo came back with his keys. Leo arched an eyebrow as they stepped outside into the cold. “You know I still have to lock the door behind us, right?”

The redhead sighed dramatically and released his hand again. Logan smiled and said something in French about drama queens as he stared at Finn in adoration.

It didn’t make Leo’s heart ache anymore. Instead he just felt giddy – like he would never be able to sleep tonight.

How had this become his life?

Leo quickly locked the doors to the restaurant and then laced his fingers with Finn’s again. “Ready?”

“Lead the way, Peanut.”

So they began the walk back to Leo’s apartment, side by side. Leo and Finn shared stories about the places they passed as they walked – a strange combination of childhood stories from Finn and food recommendations from Leo but Logan soaked up every word, wanting to learn as much about his boys’ city as he could.

Finn was playing with Leo’s hand when he brushed his thumb across a thick, raised scar on one finger. He held it up to inspect and pressed a gentle kiss to it. “What’s this from?”

Leo looked down at it. “Oh, I almost took that finger off in culinary school.”

“You did what?”

“We were learning how to properly butcher a cow and it didn’t end well.”

Finn looked a little green. “Oh my god, baby.”

Leo tripped over his feet and looked over at Finn, who didn’t even seem to realize what he’d said.

Leo’s heart would never recover from tonight.

“Oh, Fish, show him that one scar you got sophomore year of college. The one from that asshole who played center at Brown?”

“Oh yeah! Nut, you’ve gotta look at this one.” Finn said excitedly, dropping Leo’s hand to roll up his coat and the shirtsleeve underneath it. “So it’s the third period, we’re tied one to one. I was on a break away, right? And then…”

They continued to share stories as they walked, although Logan was finding it harder and harder to focus on anything else but the rising spots of color on both of their cheeks and Leo’s nose, god it was too cute. The three of them finally reached an apartment building and hurried inside to get out of the cold.

Leo led them to his apartment and unlocked the door before welcoming them inside with a sheepish grimace. “Sorry about the mess, I’ve been making a lot of pasta and didn’t have time to clean it up before I left.” His stomach growled loudly. “Didn’t have time to eat, either, so I’m going to make a snack too. Make yourselves at home.”

Logan looked at the kitchen that was covered in flour, cooking utensils, and several different pasta cutters. He smiled softly at the sight, although he felt a little guilty. “You really went through a lot of trouble for tonight, huh?” Finn stood by his side and wrapped an arm around his waist. Logan leaned into him slightly as they both watched Leo preheat the oven and grab a wheel of brie and fresh raspberries from the fridge. Next came honey and crackers from the pantry.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Leo said as the oven beeped to signal that it had reached the right temperature. He put the brie in a pan, drizzled it with honey, and set it in the oven. “I enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I made pasta from scratch.”

Leo led the way to the living room where they all sat down on the couch, getting as close to each other as they could. Logan finally got to kiss the pink of Leo’s cheek, which earned him a soft smile.

“We still should probably talk about this.” The blond said, snuggling close to them. “I mean, how is this going to work? We all travel all the time. I’m based in New York and y’all are in Gryffindor. That’s a lot of long distance.”

Finn sighed, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. “I’m not going to lie to you, the season is going to be hectic. It always is. But we can visit as much as we can, and then there’s the offseason.” He smiled and poked Leo in the side. “You’ll be lucky to get rid of us then.”

“And you aren’t constantly recording new shows, are you?” Logan asked. “You could always visit or tag along to away games if you wanted.”

“I do a lot of videos from home, too. If you don’t mind me commandeering your kitchen every once in a while, I could always record them from there.”

“Peanut, literally nothing could make us happier than you taking over our kitchen.” Logan grinned at the thought, remembering the week Leo had spent in their apartment. He wanted to have that every day.

“Oh my god, we’re going to eat so much good food.” Finn sighed happily, resting his chin on Leo’s shoulder.

The timer for the brie went off. Leo rose to his feet to head back to the kitchen, shooting his boys a look as he went. “Your nutritionist is going to kill me.”

“Nah. You’ll be fine.” Finn reassured, giving Logan a lovestruck smile. He sent a similar smile back. “I’m sure you can run faster than him, anyways.”

“That’s not exactly comforting.” Leo called over his shoulder, taking the brie out of the oven and setting it on a plate with the raspberries, crackers, and more honey.

“I can’t believe a giant like you is afraid of a five-foot-nothing nutritionist.” Logan teased.

“If you’d seen the way he was glaring at me for all the pasta I cooked tonight, you’d be scared too.” Leo sat back down on the couch and picked up a cracker, scooping some warm brie onto it and adding some honey and a raspberry on top. “Now I know you’re probably full, but y’all have to try this.”

***

Logan looked over at Finn as the elevator began to slow down. “You ready for this?”

“Not at all.” He replied, but he was still smiling.

The elevator doors opened with a ding! and Logan and Finn stepped out. Their entire team was waiting for them in the hotel lobby with matching smug, teasing looks on their faces.

“You took a cab home, huh?” Talker chirped with a wicked grin.

The rest of the team erupted in cheers and whistles and cat calls, talking over each other in order to keep the teasing going.

“We signed up for this, didn’t we?” Logan asked, rolling his eyes.

Finn just kept smiling. He was going to be smiling for weeks after the events of last night. “Yep. And it’s definitely worth it.” Then he raised his voice for the rest of the team to hear, “Keep laughing while you can! We’re going to be soft, squishy romantics for at least the next month and you guys are going to have to deal with us. You’re going to be so sick of it, I can guarantee it.”

The team gave them uncertain looks.

“Now, get ready! I’m about to talk about our sweet ray of Louisiana sunshine the entire way to the stadium. I sure hope there’s a lot of traffic, because I have a lot to say.”

“Oh god. What have we done?”

“Blame Dumo - he’s the one who signed them up for that show.”

“Hey!”

***

The Gryffindor Lions Talk Show: Hosted by Butts and Kinzy

Longbottom: Looks like we’ve got a special guest in attendance tonight, folks! For those of you who don’t know, two of our finest went on a Food Network cooking competition during the offseason, and it looks like they’ve made a friend.

McKinnon: That’s chef Leo Knut. He was one of their instructors on the show. It’s nice to see that they still keep in touch. *clears her throat* There’s a link on all of our social media pages where you can watch Harzy and Tremzy be absolute disasters in the kitchen. Go check it out if you haven’t already! Now for our starting lineups!


	10. You’re Shrimp-ly Amazing

Leo stopped in front of Logan and Finn’s apartment door and fished his keys out of his pocket, flipping through them until he found the key to their door - he had a key now. 

He had barely opened the door before he was tackled by both of his boys.

“Peanut butter.” Finn said happily, face buried in Leo’s chest.

Logan looked up at him with bright, happy eyes that were crinkling at the corners. “God, we missed you.”

Leo smiled excitedly and let them lead him inside the apartment. “Missed you - mmph.” He stopped talking as Logan surged up and kissed him, cradling his jaw in a calloused hand. Leo felt the tension leave his shoulders and kissed back, hands on Logan’s waist and sneaking underneath his sweatshirt. When he finally had the air to breathe, he finished his sentence. “Missed you too.”

“Stop being a Leo hog.” Finn grumbled good-naturedly, stepping in to give Leo a long, lingering kiss that left him speechless.

“Welcome ho – I mean, welcome back.” Finn said. “We made dinner. And before you make that face, it’s a recipe from Celeste. We even called her while cooking to make sure we were doing everything right.”

I love you two.

Leo didn’t say it out loud – none of them had. But hopefully soon. Instead he said, “Sounds perfect. What’s for dinner?”

“Hey, y’all, and welcome back to Cajun Cooking! A lot of people have requested that I do this recipe, so today we’re making shrimp etouffee. This is a Louisiana classic and there are a lot of different recipes out there but this is my mama’s recipe, so it’s very authentic. You can also use crawfish in this recipe, but mama always used shrimp because she knew a shrimp fisherman and could get a better deal.” Leo smiled at the camera set up in the kitchen, then looked over to his boys.

“Today we’ve got some familiar faces here to be my sous chefs for the day and help me out. If you watched the last season of Worst Cooks, then you’ll definitely recognize them.”

Logan and Finn stepped into view. Logan waved awkwardly while Finn gave the camera a mock salute. “Sup.”

“So first, we’ve got to start with preparing our fresh shrimp.” Leo said, holding up a shrimp that hadn’t been deconstructed yet. Finn made a disgusted face at it. “Start by grabbing your shrimp and just take the head off. You should feel where the head ends and the rest of the shrimp begins, so just grab there and pull.”

Logan and Finn shared a look of mild horror. Leo, like always, was unfazed.

“Next, hold where the legs are and peel back on the outer shell until you’re left with the soft shrimp meat on the inside. The legs should come off at the same time, too. Now be sure to save those shells! We’re going to use it for the shrimp stock later on. Make sure you pull the tail off, too.” He looked over at the other two. “Sound good?”

“Um…”

“It’s not so bad. I’ll do it with you.” Leo slowly showed them how to do it again, then motioned for them to get started.

“These look so gross.” Finn said, hesitantly holding a shrimp by the tail. Logan smirked and grabbed a shrimp before slowly bringing it closer to Finn’s face, those beady little eyes staring into his soul. Finn shrieked and scrambled backwards while Logan and Leo laughed.

They all got started on preparing the shrimp. Leo still did over half of the work, but he got to watch the other two grimace and flinch as they worked, which was pretty entertaining.

“While they’re finishing up, I’m going to show you a quick and easy way to devein shrimp.” Leo said, grabbing a de-shelled shrimp. “Start by making a slit along the middle of the back with a small knife and pull the dark vein out. Most people just rinse the shrimp under cold water to clean them, but sometimes this isn’t enough to completely clean the shrimp. In Japanese cooking, they actually clean shrimp with potato starch. The potato starch absorbs the smell and dirty particles from shrimp really well, so that’s what I usually do. Just grab some potato starch and rub it all over the shrimp and then rinse it all off. See how dirty the starch gets as you scrub the shrimp? That’s some clean shrimp right there.”

Leo looked over at his boys, smiling softly as they meticulously deveined shrimp. “How are we doing, sous chefs?”

“No one told me that shrimp shells can be sharp.” Logan said, sending him a playful glare. “Also, these are really gross.”

“But it’s going to taste so good.” Leo cajoled with puppy dog eyes that were proven to consistently work on Finn and Logan. Logan sighed, lips twitching as he fought a smile while Finn just melted.

They all got back to work deveining and cleaning shrimp until they were all done.

“Next we’re going to make our shrimp stock. If you guys could chop half of an onion, celery, and two garlic cloves, that would be great.”

Logan grabbed the vegetables while Finn grabbed two knives.

“And please don’t cut yourselves.” Leo hastily added with a grimace. “I taught you knife-handling, please tell me you haven’t forgotten it.”

Logan leaned up and kissed his cheek. “You worry too much, baby.” Then his eyes widened and he glanced at the camera guiltily. “Shit. We can edit that out, if you want.”

Leo didn’t even have to think about it. He reached over and tangled his fingers with Logan’s. “I’m fine with it if you are.” He glanced over at Finn, who had stopped chopping his onion and was looking at them with teary eyes. “Finn?”

“One of these days,” He said with a laugh, “I’m gonna make the onions cry.”

The other two laughed with him, shuffling over to hug him. Logan reached up and wiped away the tears. “You’re ridiculous.”

Finn shrugged. “Yeah. But I’m happy.”

“So are we.” Leo said, unable to contain his smile. “Ready to get back to cooking?”

***

They had invited people over to eat all the shrimp etouffee at Logan and Finn’s apartment after they were done recording. So sure enough, at six o’clock on the dot, there was a loud knock on the door.

“Come on in!” Logan called as Leo added more Tabasco to the pot and Finn watched as people piled into their apartment.

This. This was what he wanted for the rest of his life. His boys next to him and his friends in the living room talking loudly over each other.

This was home.

Dumo, Celeste, and the kids were the last to enter. Dumo made a beeline to the team to try and break up the bickering that had started up while the kids immediately swarmed Logan, clamoring for attention.

Celeste smiled apologetically. “Well, this is chaotic.”

“It’s nice.” Leo said, quickly sampling his dish. “Much better than an empty apartment.”

She hummed sympathetically, resting her arms on the kitchen counter separating them. “I remember that. Having hockey player partners who travel all the time is tough, isn’t it? And to be long distance, too.” She whistled lowly. “Have you considered moving?”

Leo looked over at Logan listening patiently to the kids and Finn washing dishes at the sink and couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. Yeah I have.” He laughed in disbelief. “Is that crazy? We haven’t even known each other for a year.”

She shrugged. “Are you happy?” At Leo’s nod, she continued, “Then who cares if it’s early by society’s standards? I, for one, know those two would be over the moon if you moved in. They pout when you’re gone.”

He laughed fondly. “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“Oh! I’ve been meaning to ask you this for weeks now and it just keeps slipping my mind. Could you share your jambalaya recipe? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since you made it.”

“Well…” Leo winced. “It’s actually a family recipe. We don’t want everyone to get their hands on it, you know?”

“I mean, we’ll be practically family soon enough.” Celeste teased. Leo smiled so broadly that those dimples could’ve been seen from space.

“Give me your chocolate cake recipe and it’s a deal.”

Celeste laughed loudly and looked over to Logan, who was shuffling over with Katie clinging tightly to him. “I like this one.”

“Yeah,” Logan agreed. “He’s a keeper.”

“Yo, are we ready to eat yet?” Pots shouted from the living room. “Kasey gets grumpy when he’s hungry.”

“Do not.” Kasey grumbled.

“We’re ready.” Leo called. “Hope you boys like some spice.”

“Even if you think you do, brace yourselves.” Finn added. “Leo’s got a heavy hand with the Tabasco.”

“Because it tastes good on everything.”

Logan squinted at him. “Does it, though?”

“Do you want me to prove it?”

“No.”

***

They arrived at the rink early, still blinking sleep out of their eyes and yawning and leaning into each other for warmth.

“You ready to skate?” Finn asked, leading the way to the equipment room.

“Sure. I’m probably a little rusty, though. I haven’t skated since high school.”

Logan closed the door behind them, giving Leo a curious look. “Why’d you quit?”

Leo sighed. “I was a gay kid in the south. Hockey’s not known for being very accepting even when you live in more tolerant places. But in Louisiana…” He shrugged and grabbed a pair of skates in his size. “It wasn’t worth it, no matter how much I loved to play.” Looking at their sad expressions, he hurried to continue, “But it’s fine. I don’t regret it. I found where I was supposed to be, and I love what I’m doing. And I wouldn’t have met y’all if I hadn’t gone to culinary school.”

“It’s still not fair.”

“No,” Leo agreed, moving to stand in front of Logan. “But now kids in the same situation have you two and Cap to look up to. And that makes a world of difference. Now, are we going to skate or not?”

Logan and Finn lead him to the locker room, where they grabbed their own skates, and then down the tunnel to the ice. They all laced up their skates and glided out onto the ice.

“See? Not too rusty.” Logan said, leaning forward to look at Leo on the other side of Finn. “I’m sure you’ll do fine at family skate.”

“Thanks for inviting me, by the way.” Leo said, quickly adding, “It’s just… I know we haven’t been together all that long, but y’all mean so much to me, so being able to get to know your friends and family is –” 

He trailed off as Finn skated in close and kissed him oh-so-gently before leaning back and running his hand tenderly through the gray tuft of hair at his forehead.

“I love you, Peanut.”

Leo sucked in a breath and stared at him.

“We love you.” Logan amended, joining their little huddle.

Leo smiled softly, his heart feeling like it was overflowing. He grabbed both of their hands in his. “I love you, too. God, I love you so much, you have no idea. I’m so glad you two got signed up for that show.”

“Dumo and Celeste, the accidental matchmakers.”

Finn grinned. “We should bake them a cake.”

“We can do that.” Leo agreed. “We’ve got nothing but time.”

And with that exciting new prospect they continued their skate across the ice, hand in hand.


	11. Epilogue: I’m Soy Into You

“I’m not touching that.”

“Finn.”

“Nope. No way.” He backed away from the kitchen counter. “When you said sushi night, I didn’t know it involved this.”

Leo furrowed his brow, confused. “Logan, why is this such a big deal?”

His response was only one word said with fondness. “Seaweed.”

“What’s wrong with seaweed?”

“What’s not wrong with seaweed?” Finn shot back, still staring at the nori distrustfully. “It’s slimy and gross and attacks you while you’re swimming in the ocean.”

“Well first of all, this is dried seaweed. No sliminess involved.” Leo said as he tried to keep a straight face. “Secondly, we’re nowhere near the ocean, so you don’t have to worry about it attacking you.”

“I’ll help with everything else, but I refuse to go anywhere near that seaweed.”

“If you’re this afraid of seaweed, how can you eat sushi?”

“I didn’t know what it was when I first tried it, and then I got obsessed.” Finn sighed. “My mind says no, but my taste buds say yes.”

“Sweetheart,” Leo laughed, pressing a kiss to messy red hair. “You’re ridiculous.”

Finn melted. He’d never get over the way he said sweetheart in that slow, southern twang.

“But if you want to make the sauces, Logan and I can make the sushi rolls.”

“Oh, thank god.”

Finn looked at the recipes on his phone and got started on the spicy mayo. Logan and Leo got started taking their rice, veggies, and other fillings and spreading them out on the nori sheets. Once they were ready to start rolling, Leo began explaining. “Now we’ve got to roll these more than once. The first roll will bind the ingredients into the center and then you just keep repeating until you’ve got a nice, compact roll.” He showed Logan how to do it, then supervised as Logan did his own roll.

“You might want to roll it a little tighter so that it doesn’t fall apart.” Leo suggested, reaching over and putting his hands over Logan’s to demonstrate. Logan didn’t even watch what they were doing, he just looked up at Leo and then glanced over at Finn, who was watching with a dopey smile.

“The height difference between the two of you is just so cute.” He said, not a hint of teasing in his voice. Logan still sent him a glare, but it quickly morphed into a soft smile as Leo’s arms wrapped around him from behind.

“Adorable.” Leo agreed, leaning down to kiss the hinge of Logan’s jaw. Finn quickly dropped his spatula and joined the hug, peppering kisses over both their cheeks and anywhere else he could reach as the sky outside turned orange and pink with the setting sun.

“We need to get this finished.” Leo said, betraying his words by not moving an inch and combing his fingers through Finn’s hair. “We’ve got a bunch of hungry hockey players coming over soon who will be quite upset if we run out of food five minutes after they get here.”

“Kiss now, cook later.” Finn said as he leaned over to kiss Logan, who hummed in agreement.

Leo still couldn’t find a flaw in that argument.

***

Their apartment was soon filled with people laughing and eating and talking over each other. Logan, Leo, and Finn were all piled on their couch and teasing Pots for a story he was telling. It was hectic, but it was home.

Marlene, who was standing next to Dorcas in line for more sushi toppings, grabbed a large portion of wasabi and smeared it over her sushi.

Dorcas raised one eyebrow. “That’s a lot of wasabi you’ve got there.”

Marlene grinned back. “I like things spicy.” She said with a flirtatious wink before eating the sushi. Dorcas watched in amusement as her face turned red and her grin became strained.

“Would you like some water?”

“Please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! Thank you so much for reading! I hope y'all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Come check me out on Tumblr! The username is the same. :)


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